9 IMPLEMENTATION OF DESIGNATED PSSAs AND THE ASSOCIATED PROTECTIVE MEASURES
9.1 When a PSSA receives final designation, all associated protective measures should be identified on charts in accordance with the symbols and methods of the international Hydrographic Organization (IHO).
9.2 A proposing Member Government should ensure that any associated protective measure is implemented in accordance with international law as reflected in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
9.3 Member Governments should take all appropriate steps to ensure that ships flying their flag comply with the associated protective measures adopted to protect the designated PSSA. Those Member Governments which have received information of an alleged violation of an associated protective measure by a ship t1ying their flag should provide the Government which has reported the offence with the details of any appropriate action taken.
NOTES AND QUESTIONS
1. Designated PSSAs. The following PSSAs have been designated under the IMO procedure:
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The Great Barrier Reef, Australia; this designation was extended in 2005 to include the Torres Strait (Australia and Papua New Guinea)
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The Sabana-Cam aguey Archipelago in Cuba
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Malpelo Island Columbia
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The sea around the Florida Keys, USA
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The Wadden Sea, Denmark, Germany and Netherlands
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Paracas National Reserve, Peru
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Western European Waters
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Canary Islands, Spain
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The Galapagos Archipelago, Ecuador
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The Baltic Sea Area, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden
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The Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, USA
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The Strait of Bonifacio, France and Italy
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Is the IMO procedure too limited and cumbersome? IMO protects PSSAs primarily through ship routing measures. If State A wishes to enforce stringent and detailed management measures in its PSSAs, does it risk violating the provisions of UNCLOS applicable to EEZs and its territorial sea?
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3. An ecosystems approach to the management of marine areas requires an understanding of the physical and biological characteristics of the particular area and the interconnections among living and non-living systems as well as human and economic and social systems that impact these resources. The ecosystem approach contrasts with a more narrowly focused management strategy that focuses on single species or short-term, sectoral, thematic approaches to management. From a fisheries perspective, the ecosystem approach requires sustaining the ecosystems that produce the fish. Is an ecosystem approach to management of marine areas compatible with UNCLOS?
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Suppose one of the areas in its EEZ State A wishes to protect consists of an underwater shipwreck that is the remains of a ship that sank during an eighteenth century war. State A wishes to protect this site from international salvors who might dive on the wreck to extract valuable cultural objects. Can this site be protected under international law? See also the UNESCO Convention on Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001).
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United States law. The United States has enacted the Marine Sanctuaries Act, 16 USC sees. 1431 et seq., under which the Secretary of Commerce may designate certain areas of its territorial sea or EEZ as National Marine Sanctuaries. At present the National Marine Sanctuary Program includes 13 marine sanctuaries and one marine national monument.
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Channel islands (Cal.)
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Cordell Bank (Cal.)
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Fagatele Bay (Alaska)
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Florida Keys (Fl.)
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Flower Garden Banks (Tx.)
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Gray's Reef (Ga.)'
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Gulf of the Farallones (Cal.)
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Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Sanctuary (Hawaii)
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Monitor (Civil War ship) Marine Sanctuary
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Monterrey Bay (Cal.)
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Olympic Coast (Wash.)
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Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument (Hawaii)
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Stellwagen Bank (Ma.)
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Thunder Bay (Mich.)
6. Developing countries. Beginning in the 1990s, developing countries approached the Global Environment Facility (GEF) for funding and technical assistance to improve the management of Large Marine Ecosystems, including those shared with neighboring nations. The GEF is supporting several hundred marine projects in 156 developing countries. See Alfred M. Duda and Kenneth Sherman, A New Imperative for Improving the Management of Large Marine Ecosystems, Ocean & Coastal Management 45 (2002) 797-833.
7. Marine protected areas and biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction. What legal framework exists to conserve marine ecosystems and marine biodiversity on the High Seas and other marine areas beyond national jurisdictions? Consider UNCLOS Articles 86 and 87; is there any authority for marine protected areas? Consider also the provisions of UNCLOS dealing with the "Area", especially Article 136, which states that the Area and its resources are the common heritage of mankind. This concept constitutes a "third way" that is neither sovereignty nor complete freedom of action. Does this concept provide a basis for marine protected areas or for protecting the genetic resources of areas beyond national jurisdictions from indiscriminate exploitation? Note that Article 133 of UNCLOS defines the resources of the area to include only non-living resources. UNCLOS does not provide any specific regime for either the preservation or the exploitation of marine genetic resources. Professor Tullio Scovazzi has stated that the fact that there is no specific UNCLOS regime for biological resources in areas beyond national jurisdictions constitutes a legal "gap" in UNCLOS. He recommends filling this legal gap by approving a third Implementation Agreement (to go along with the 1994 Part XI Agreement on Seabed Mining and the 1995 Fish Stocks Agreement) that would create a new regime to cover this issue, which was not foreseen at the time of the conclusion of UNCLOS. See Tullio Scovazzi, The Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity, including Genetic Resources, in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction: A Legal Perspective (2012), available at http://www.un.org/Oepts/los/consultative_process/ICP12_Presentation.pdf. See also Tullio Scovazzi, Marine Protected Areas on the High Seas: Some Legal and Policy Considerations (World Parks Congress, Durban South Africa, 2003); and IUCN, Elements of a Possible Implementation Agreement to UNCLOS for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity in Areas beyond National Jurisdiction, Marine Series No. 4 (2012).
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