Thor Heyerdahl, sailing the Atlantic in his papyrus raft, Ra, found globs of oil, tar and plastics stretching from the coast of Africa to South America. Parts of the Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Sea are already so polluted that marine life is severely threatened. And waste dumped in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans has washed up on the shores of Antarctica.
In the United States, long stretches of beaches are often closed because of medical and other waste washing up on shore. And every time an oil tanker is involved in an accident, the world’s pulse quickens a bit in fear of a major catastrophe. In fact, every time a tanker cleans its tanks at sea, every time a factory channels toxic residues to coastal waters or a city conveniently releases raw sewage into the sea, every time a service station changes the oil of a car and pours the waste oil into the sewers, the oceans become a little more polluted. Eventually, scientists fear, the oceans’ regenerative capacity will be overwhelmed by the amount of incoming, man-made pollution. Signs of such catastrophe are clearly observed in many seasparticularly along the heavily populated coasts and enclosed or semi-enclosed seas.
There are six main sources of ocean pollution addressed in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982): land-based and coastal activities; continental-shelf drilling; potential seabed mining; ocean dumping; vessel-source pollution; and pollution from or through the atmosphere.
First of all, the Convention lays down the fundamental obligation of all states to protect and preserve the marine environment. It further urges all states to cooperate on a global and regional basis in formulating rules and standards and otherwise take measures for the same purpose. Coastal states are empowered to enforce their national standards and anti-pollution measures within their territorial sea. Every coastal state is granted jurisdiction for the protection and preservation of the marine environment of its exclusive economic zones (EEZs). Such jurisdiction allows coastal states to control, prevent and reduce marine pollution from dumping, land-based sources or seabed activities subject to national jurisdiction, or from or through the atmosphere. With regard to marine pollution from foreign vessels, coastal states can exercise jurisdiction only for the enforcement of laws and regulations adopted in accordance with the Convention or for “generally accepted international rules and standards”. Such rules and standards, many of which are already in place, are adopted through a competent international organization, namely the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
On the other hand, it is the duty of the “flag state”, the state where a ship is registered and whose flag it flies, to enforce the rules adopted for the control of marine pollution from vessels, irrespective of where a violation occurs. This serves as a safeguard for the enforcement of international rules, particularly in waters beyond the national jurisdiction of the coastal state, i.e., on the high seas.
Furthermore, the UNCLOS gives enforcement powers to the “port state”, or the state where a ship is destined. In doing so it has incorporated a method developed in other conventions for the enforcement of treaty obligations dealing with shipping standards, marine safety and pollution prevention. The port state can enforce any type of international rule or national regulations adopted in accordance with the Convention or applicable international rules as a condition for the entry of foreign vessels into their ports or internal waters or for a call at their offshore terminals. This has already become a significant factor in the strengthening of international standards.
Finally, as far as the international seabed area is concerned, the International Seabed Authority, through its Council, is given broad discretionary powers to assess the potential environmental impact of a deep seabed mining operation, recommend changes, formulate rules and regulations, establish a monitoring programme and recommend issuance of emergency orders by the council to prevent serious environmental damage. States are to be held liable for any damage caused by either their own enterprise or contractors under their jurisdiction.
With the passage of time, United Nations’ involvement with the law of the sea has expanded as awareness increases that not only ocean problems but global problems as a whole are interrelated. Already, the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, placed a great deal of emphasis on the protection and preservation of the oceans’ environment in harmony with the rational use and development of their living resources, thus establishing the concept of “sustainable development” embodied in Agenda 21, the programme of action adopted at the Conference.
A recurring topic in implementing the programme of action adopted in Rio De Janeiro is the necessity to combat the degradation and depletion of fish stocks, both in the zones under national jurisdiction and in the high seas. A second recurring topic is addressing fish stock depletion causes, such as overfishing and excess fishing capacity, by-catch and discards.
In this respect, among the most important outputs of the conference was the convening of an intergovernmental conference under United Nations auspices. The intergovernmental conference was convened with a view to resolving the old conflict between coastal states and distant-water fishing states over straddling and highly migratory fish stocks in the areas adjacent to the 200 nautical-mile EEZs.
This conference adopted the 1995 Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks. The agreement introduces a number of innovative measures, particularly in the area of environmental and resource protection obliging states to adopt a precautionary approach to fisheries exploitation and giving expanded powers to port states to enforce proper management of fisheries resources.
