The Caribbean has become a confusing place to administer legally.

By Richard Walker

Where maritime boundaries begin and end is in dispute in many parts of the Caribbean Sea. Some islands are in the EU, some are not. Who owns the fish? And who should police the movement of illicit goods through Caribbean waters?

Slick Caribbean body

The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has been angling for years to put together a body to deal with these questions.

Now, the twin-island Federation of St. Kitts-Nevis has set up a Maritime Boundaries Commission to settle disputes and uncertainties over blurred maritime borders with neighbouring Dutch, British, French and independent islands.

The Commission will spearhead negotiations with the relevant countries on the settlement of maritime boundaries.

Managing fish

The Commission says it will:

- establish the maritime space over which St. Kitts and Nevis will be able to exercise rights as a matter of international law

- provide a stable basis for the better management of fisheries and other marine resources

- set boundaries which will give rise to better control and monitoring of shipping of dangerous and illicit commodities through Caribbean waters

Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs)

EEZs were introduced after the US brought a tuna-fishing complaint against Ecuador to the International Court of Justice.

EEZs were defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1982.

EEZs were brought into effect to halt increasingly heated clashes over fishing rights, although oil was also becoming important.

EEZs extend from the edge of the territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles from the shoreline. Within this area, the coastal nation has sole exploitation rights over all natural resources.

The term EEZ includes the territorial sea and even the continental shelf.