In a bid to prevent overfishing by excluding non-EU fishermen, France has announced plans to declare a 70-mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Mediterranean.
“We are changing policy because it is unacceptable for boats from around the world to be able to draw on resources, especially of fish, anywhere except in the 15-mile territorial waters, without any control,” said French Environment Minister Jean-Louis Borloo.
According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), an EEZ gives states sovereign rights over fishing and marine resources, outside its 12-mile territorial waters and up to 200 miles from its shores. For an EU member, however, those waters are subject to the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), and free for all EU fishermen following EU rules.
France has until now not claimed any EEZ borders in the Mediterranean, but the Environment Minister said he hoped that neighbouring Union members would follow his country’s example, to “avoid the arrival of powerful industrial fleets in the closed sea of the Mediterranean.”
Since 2004, France has enforced an Ecological Protection Zone in the Mediterranean, under the MARPOL anti-pollution convention, enabling it to prosecute ships that dump waste at sea up to 60 nautical miles from its coast.