Zonal Maritime Management

In principle, the law of the sea regulates human activities in the ocean according to the legal category of ocean spaces, which is sometimes referred to as the zonal management approach (Tanaka, 2008).

The reconciliation of the national interest of the coastal States controlling offshore resources and that of distant fishing State ensuring the freedom of fisheries is a question at the heart of international law relating to conservation of marine living resources. A primary function of the traditional zonal management approach was to reconcile those opposing interests. Thus it may be said that the zonal maritime management is in essence an exploitation-oriented approach (Tanaka, 2008). And this dichotomy represented a prototype of the zonal management approach.

The 1958 Geneva Conventions for the first time in the history of international law codified the zonal management approach, which divide the ocean into three main categories which are internal waters, territorial seas and high seas, but traditional dualism in the ocean was still maintained (Tanaka, 2008). UNCLOS I & II failed to settle the breadth of the territorial seas, which is actually a fundamental question with the zonal management approach. This failure encouraged the further extension of the coastal State’s jurisdiction toward the high sea. 1982 LOSC distinguishes five categories of marine spaces: internal waters, territorial seas, archipelagic waters, EEZ and the high seas. ZMA was transformed from dualism to multilateralism (Tanaka, 2008). LOSC is finally resolved the essential question associated with the zonal management approach. States reached an agreement that the maximum seaward limit of the territorial sea was 12 miles. Thus it may be said that the zonal management approach was established in the 1982 LOSC in its true sense.

However, the traditional zonal maritime management is insufficient to resolve the problems encountered in the management of ocean space. According to Tanaka,...