Posted on 12/11/2009 7:34:36 AM PST by BGHater
The 400-year-old freedom of the high seas would be lost under United Nations plans to limit environmental damage.
Military forces of several nations are in discussions with conservationists over pooling surveillance resources to enforce the changes.
The “freedom of the seas” has given mariners legal rights to roam the high seas — a boundary that usually occurs 200 nautical miles from shore — at will. Specialists gathered at a London conference are saying that fishermen have been pushing the concept too far.
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea came into force in 1983 and enshrined the 17th-century concept of the freedom of the seas. But while being on the high seas puts ships outside the jurisdiction of any one country, the small print of the law dictates that nations ensure that no undue damage is caused.
“The freedom of the high seas has always been accompanied by attendant responsibilities in the Law of the Sea Convention,” said Jeff Ardron, director of the high seas programme for the Marine Conservation Biology Institute.
“They were not unfettered freedoms — they have just been treated that way. The time has come when we are finally going to implement the Law of the Sea Convention as it was intended,” he told the Natural England conference, entitled Sea Change: securing a future for Europe’s seas.
The UN General Assembly voted last week to impose strict regulations on high seas bottom-trawling vessels. Next February a UN working group will meet to discuss establishing Marine Protected Areas on the high seas to create boundaries within which fishing activities are restricted.
Fishing vessels are not required to carry the same automatic identification system that tracks the identity of merchant ships.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesonline.co.uk ...
The UN is such a joke. They can’t do a damn thing about piracy on the open seas, yet they think they can enforce this CRAP!!!
Seems like this should apply to the nations of the various pirates then as well. Let's see the UN enforce something there!
Before the US extended our limits to 200 miles we had the Chesapeake Bay fishery shut down one year by the Egyptian fishing fleet. They anchored near the mouth of the bay and hauled in everything. Even the junk fish became fertilizer.
The striped bass fishing finally had to be closed for years and is still at risk, harvest is limited. I’ve heard the bass winter off the coast of NC in a small area and could easily be nearly devastated in one year by enough nets.
Thank you USA for creating the UN and for paying most of its bills /sarcasm
This might actually be a good thing as overfishing has devastated many areas e.g. North Sea, Grand Banks etc.
Uhm, until they have their own Navy, they can’t enforce anything.
Heard about this on Glenn Beck radio show over a year ago.
NOThing is off the table for these people. ANYthing they can do to cut the United States down to size. LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD, Social Justice.
Thats because its easy to enforce the law against honest folks - they don’t shoot back.
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