Fisheries Management and Development in the EEZ: The North, South, and Southwest Pacific Experience

The establishment of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ's) has generated modifications of existing institutional arrangements and creations of new regional bodies to promote international cooperation in the conservation, management, and development of living resources of the sea. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (the "Convention") has affected fisheries management by authorizing coastal States to extend their sovereign rights over living and non-living resources seaward up to the outer limits of 200-nautical-mile off-shore areas, measured from their coastlines which could be drawn as straight baselines. On a global basis, the areas within the exclusive economic zones of coastal States cover more than one-third of the surface of ocean space. More importantly, 95% of the living resources of the sea under commercial exploitation are present in these areas. The purpose of this article is to examine some of the main options open to the United States in the operation of its EEZ's, particularly with regard to the management and development of the living resources of the sea. This article concentrates on the North Pacific area and the South and Southwest Pacific region. It analyzes relevant issues in light of the experience and policy options adopted by the United States and their possible coordination and harmonization, including factors which may have influenced the current trends in the practice of the United States. It is on the basis of governmental practice, especially the treaty practice of the United States, that the present study will be made.