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Exclusive Economic Zones And Pacific Developing Island States - Who Really Gets All The Fish?, Quentin A. Hanich, Ben M. Tsamenyi

Quentin Hanich

The establishment of exclusive economic zones (EEZs), through the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), changed the allocation of fishing rights. These zones allocated all fishing rights within 200 nautical miles of land to neighbouring coastal States. This change dramatically increased sovereign rights for Pacific small island States. In many cases, these States, with limited terrestrial resources, were allocated large resource rich EEZs that had previously been dominated by distant water fishing States. Distant water fishing States, concerned that they would lose access to 85-90% of the world's active fishing grounds, argued that the LOSC …