The Charlie-Gibbs Marine Protected Area – Why Was it Split in Two?
The Charlie-Gibbs MPA after 2010
Figure 1. Marine protected areas beyond the 200 nautical mile (nm) zones of coastal States the North-East Atlantic as designated by OSPAR 2010 (in yellow). MPAs where the seafloor is designated under national legislation are framed in orange. Accordingly, the Charlie-Gibbs North area is outlined in orange. The proposed Reykjanes Ridge MPA is only stippled in orange. (click image to enlarge)
2010 was an important year for the protection of biodiversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction (more background in Chapter V www.unep.org). Environmental Ministers of the OSPAR countries officially designated the Charlie-Gibbs South Marine Protected Area (OSPAR Commission, 2010), but not the northern part as already adopted "in principle" in 2008 (see Fig. 1).
This southern part of the originally proposed Charlie-Gibbs area constitutes all waters and seafloor outside any actual or potential national legislation. While all the water column overlaying the seafloor is regarded as High Seas, and therefore subject to OSPAR conservation action, the seafloor of Charlie-Gibbs South itself is in 'the Area'. Its mineral resources are part of the "common heritage of mankind" under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Charlie-Gibbs North is the northern part of the originally proposed marine protected area (MPA) that includes the Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone. In 2009, Iceland filed a submission to the respective UN commission, according to which the seafloor of this northern part of the Charlie-Gibbs MPA overlaps with the preliminary extended continental shelf of Iceland (Factsheet on the history of Charlie-Gibbs MPA). In case the submission of Iceland will be assessed as being in accordance with UNCLOS, Iceland will have the power to decide for or against the establishment of a MPA. In the interim period, Iceland maintains that neither national nor OSPAR action was appropriate. In any case, the water column in this area is subject to international management (acc. Art. 197), and could therefore be designated as an OSPAR MPA. However, Iceland and other Contracting Parties have so far not supported an OSPAR MPA covering the water column of the Charlie-Gibbs North area.
Portugal/OSPAR Hybrid MPAs
In 2010, OSPAR Environmental Ministers also designated four marine protected areas (Josephine, Altair and Antialtair Seamounts and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge north of the Azores EEZ) on the preliminary extended continental shelf of Portugal, a primer for an integrated water column/seafloor MPA under two legislations: Portugal designated the seafloor, and OSPAR, by invitation from Portugal, designated the water column. Differently to Iceland and several other Contracting Parties to OSPAR, Portugal interprets UNCLOS Art. 77 to give power and duty to coastal States with respect to the conservation of the marine environment, as soon as the site is not part of the 'the Area' anymore, even prior to a legally binding delimitation of the outer limits of the extended continental shelf (Ribeiro, 2010).
Legal Background
The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, Dec. 10, 1982) is legally binding for its 159 Contracting Parties and the European Community. It provides the basis for any sovereignty or other national jurisdiction over the maritime areas of the world oceans.
The water column of the oceans beyond the 200 nm exclusive economic zone of coastal States is called High Seas and is in all circumstances beyond national jurisdiction (Art. 78). The outer limits of national jurisdiction on so-called continental shelves beyond the 200 nm exclusive economic zone (so-called outer or extended continental shelf) are more difficult to interpret from Article 76 (4-6). They depend on evidence for a natural prolongation of the continental shelf beyond 200 nm. The maximum outer limits of national jurisdiction shall not exceed 350 nm distance from the baseline or 100 nm from the 2500 m depth isobath. On submarine ridges the outer limits shall not exceed 350 nm from the baselines, except where plateaus, rises, caps, banks and spurs are natural components of the continental margin (Art. 76-(6)).
In the North-East Atlantic, Portugal (with respect to the Azores) and Iceland have interpreted the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to provide for their (extended) continental shelf.
In all circumstances, the water column of the oceans beyond the 200 nm exclusive economic zones of coastal States, the High Seas, is beyond national jurisdiction (Art. 78).
Coastal State Rights
Although the "rights of the coastal state over the continental shelf do not depend on occupation, effective or notional, or on any express proclamation" (UNCLOS Part VI Art. 77(3)), coastal States have to secure their legal entitlement to the seabed by submitting scientific and technical information on the continental shelf beyond 200 nm to the UN Commission on the limits of the Continental Shelf (UNCLCS). Portugal and Iceland did so in 2009, but no further progress was made by the end of 2011.
On their extended continental shelves, coastal States have the exclusive sovereign right to explore and exploit the mineral and other non-living resources of the seabed and subsoil, together with living organisms belonging to sedentary species (Art. 77). The understanding of sedentary species is controversial. However, benthopelagic fishes, like for example giant redfish or orange roughy, are commonly agreed as being not 'sedentary', and can therefore be managed as a shared High Seas natural resource by regional fisheries management organisations (for further information see e.g. Owen, 2006).
Coastal State Obligations
The rights of coastal States are accompanied by the "duty to protect and preserve the marine environment" including measures to "protect and preserve rare or fragile ecosystems as well as the habitat of depleted, threatened or endangered species and other forms of marine life" (UNCLOS Part XII, Articles 192, 193 and 194.5). This is supported by various resolutions of the UN General Assembly regarding "Oceans and Law of the Sea". One such example is UN Resolution 61/105 and successors on sustainable fishing, which prohibit the destruction of vulnerable marine ecosystems by fishing (see Factsheet).
International Obligations
Coastal States and regional conventions, where they exist, are jointly responsible for the conservation of the living natural values of the High Seas water column, including above the extended continental shelf of a coastal State (Art. 197.1).
Hybrid MPAs
There is no practical experience yet regarding dual legislation and management of composite MPAs on the extended continental shelf of a coastal State. However, Owen (2010) discusses possible frictions between the management of a water column MPA by the Contracting Parties of OSPAR and the exercise of Contracting Parties' sovereign rights regarding a subjacent extended continental shelf. The development of management plans for the four Portuguese/OSPAR MPAs will be a first exercise in exploring options for integrated, coherent, ecosystem-based management in this area.
Bibliography
- Ribeiro, M.C., 2010. The "Rainbow": The first national marine protected area proposed under the high seas. The International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 25, 183-207.