The O.D. (6 page)

Pilot then turned his mind to political issues, beginning with how far out to sea a country could claim sovereignty. He found himself a computer, logged on and typed ‘territorial waters’ in the search box. He clicked on the most promising-looking result and began skim-reading.

A
state’s
territorial
sea
extends
up
to
12
nautical
miles
(
22
km
)
from
its
mean
low
water
mark
baseline
.

So far, so good.

The
contiguous
zone
is
a
band
of
water
extending
from
the
outer
edge
of
the
territorial
sea
to
up
to
24
nautical
miles
(
44
km
)
from
the
baseline
.
Within
this
area
a
state
can
exert
limited
control
for
the
purpose
of
preventing
or
punishing
‘
infringement
of
its
customs
,
fiscal
,
immigration
or
sanitary
laws
and
regulations
within
its
territory
or
territorial
sea’
…

Depends on how far we are from France, Pilot thought.

An
exclusive
economic
zone
(
EEZ
)
extends
from
the
outer
limit
of
the
territorial
sea
to
a
maximum
of
200
nautical
miles
(
370
.
4
km
)
from
the
territorial
sea
baseline
.
A
coastal
nation
has
control
of
all
economic
resources
within
its
exclusive
economic
zone
,
including
fishing
,
mining
,
oil
exploration
,
and
any
pollution
of
those
resources
.
However
,
it
cannot
prohibit
passage
or
loitering
above
,
on
,
or
under
the
surface
of
the
sea
within
that
portion
of
its
exclusive
economic
zone
beyond
its
territorial
sea
.

Pilot read this last sentence three times to make sure he understood it before moving on.

Before
1982
,
coastal
nations
arbitrarily
extended
their
territorial
waters
in
an
effort
to
control
activities
which
are
now
regulated
by
the
exclusive
economic
zone
.
These
include
offshore
oil
exploration
and
fishing
rights
(
see
Cod
War
).
Indeed
,
the
exclusive
economic
zone
is
still
popularly
,
though
erroneously
,
called
a
coastal
nation’s
territorial
waters
…

Using his ruler, Pilot calculated that the edge of Europe’s continental shelf at its farthest from land was about 100 miles west of Brest – outside France’s territorial waters and contiguous zone, but well within her EEZ. He felt his stomach drop, then continued looking for something positive.

Under
the
United
Nations
Convention
on
the
Law
of
the
Sea
,
the
name
‘
continental
shelf’
was
given
a
legal
definition
as
‘
the
stretch
of
the
seabed
adjacent
to
the
shores
of
a
particular
country
to
which
it
belongs’
.
The
relatively
accessible
continental
shelf
is
the
best
understood
part
of
the
ocean
floor
.
Most
commercial
exploitation
from
the
sea
,
such
as
metallic
-
ore
,
non
-
metallic
ore
,
and
hydrocarbon
extraction
,
takes
place
on
the
continental
shelf
.
Sovereign
rights
over
their
continental
shelves
up
to
350
nautical
miles
from
the
coast
were
claimed
by
the
marine
nations
that
signed
the
Convention
in
1958
.
This
was
partly
superseded
by
the
1982
United
Nations
Convention
on
the
Law
of
the
Sea
…

The more he read, the more Pilot’s heart sank, and it got worse.

Rights
Over
the
Continental
Shelf
Articles
77
to
81
define
the
rights
of
a
country
over
its
continental
shelf
.

A
coastal
nation
has
control
of
all
resources
on
or
under
its
continental
shelf
,
living
or
not
,
but
no
control
over
any
living
organisms
above
the
shelf
that
are
beyond
its
exclusive
economic
zone
.
This
gives
it
the
right
to
conduct
petroleum
drilling
works
and
lay
submarine
cables
or
pipelines
in
its
continental
shelf
…

Pilot was getting worried, because
wherever
they landed on the shelf, they’d still be within the French EEZ and thereby under French control. He went back to his original search and clicked a link to an article in
Interpreter
Magazine. It was a piece written in 2010 about France’s attempts to extend the EEZs of her foreign possessions – specifically, the oil rich area west of New Caledonia. Pilot skimmed the first four paragraphs, but read the fifth and sixth in their entirety.

Many
nations
are
trying
to
extend
control
over
the
undersea
continental
shelf
.
Under
Article
76
of
the
UN
Convention
on
the
Law
of
the
Sea
,
countries
can
ask
the
UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf
to
make
a
ruling
on
the
outer
limits
of
the
shelf
.
The
commission
can
only
make
recommendations
to
coastal
states
and
has
no
authority
to
determine
the
legitimacy
of
territorial
claims
.

France
has
an
active
program
of
undersea
mapping
and
oceanographic
studies
to
document
its
underwater
continental
shelf
and
show
that
it
is
a
natural
extension
of
the
land
.

Pilot gleaned from the article that the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf could be an important ally for them, even though they had no authority. He made a note to ask Vaalon if this were a provision of his plan for the UN.

Pilot stood up and walked over to the window to think his way out of the problem they faced. When international waters overlap a country’s continental shelf and the shelf then surfaces within them, what happens? Does it stop being a continental shelf and become something else? The change from ‘continental shelf’ to ‘island’ has no precedent. We’ll be in uncharted territory. He began to feel more hopeful. If his advocates were as good as Vaalon claimed they were, they might be able to
spin
their way to sovereignty.