Hosting a party on a ship’s maiden visit to Malta in 2002, I mentioned in my welcome the initiative of the Maltese ambassador to the United Nations, Dr Arvid Pardo. In a historical speech in 1967 Dr Pardo made a plea to organise ourselves as mankind as a whole and to consider the resources of the ocean as 'the common heritage of mankind'. His global vision and knowledge qualified Dr Pardo to be considered one of the great men of the twentieth century but to my surprise and disappointment this ‘Father of the present Law of the Sea’ was not well known to my audience, although the maritime sector was well represented.
The basic concept of Arvid Pardo’s 'Malta Resolution' was drastically eroded as during subsequent negotiations nations claimed as much territory as they could, resulting in extensive Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) covering nearly a third of the area of the oceans. However, the right to claim (and exploit) does not exist in isolation: attached to it is also a ‘duty of care’ ('to govern') towards the environment and this involves sustainable development of an EEZ.
The LOS Convention (art. 76) provides for coastal states to establish claims beyond the ‘normal’ 200NM limit, to a maximum of 350NM, given that certain criteria on depth and shape of the seafloor and thickness of underlying sediment are met. Such claims must be substantiated by sound and sufficient detailed data and 'a full technical description of the database'. This includes metadata, presentation of procedures whereby data was collected and compiled, etc. An effective structure, such as a (National) Data Centre is essential for determination of where potential claims can be made and where extra analyses of bathymetric, geologic and geophysical data and survey work are necessary. Despite capacity-building efforts on the part of the IHO, quite a few coastal states still lack any effective hydrographic service. So they must turn for help, either to more developed coastal states or to private industry. I can imagine that this is a difficult questions for some states.
In total, the LOS Convention brings interesting aspects and continuing work to our profession. To name but a few: the establishing of baselines, the collecting of data for claims and to monitor and protect the environment (see e.g. the new South African vessel, the Sarah Baartman (www.info.gov.za/speeches/2005/05011015451002.htm). Articles in this issue highlight some of these matters. As we might expect rights to be more easily claimed than responsibilities taken, lobbying might be necessary for private industry to become involved in aspects of ‘governing’ such as inventory making and monitoring.
Sicco Kamminga, for years a member of our editorial board has indicated that due to time constraints he is no longer able to dedicate the time he finds necessary to Hydro international. Sicco, thank you for all you did for our magazine and thank you too for your assurance that we may nevertheless continue to call on you when we need your expertise.
We welcome a new member to our editorial board: Ronald Koomans is a geophysicist and director of Medusa Explorations, a geophysical consultancy company specialised in sediment mapping. In this capacity, Ronald has been involved in studies on sediment characterisation, sediment transport and sediment pollution in both inshore and offshore waters. He will supplement our expertise on the editorial board.