Points of Conflict

Student Handout #1, The Ocean Resources Game

Familiarize yourself with the diagram of the seabed and the ocean floor and with the data that follows. Are all parts of the ocean equally valuable? Locate the areas where the different resources are concentrated. What are some of the potential conflicts?

Diagram of the Seabed and the Ocean Floor

(Please note: this graphics file is 51KB.)

Data

• The continental shelf may be as wide as 700 miles* off Siberia, Alaska, and Argentina, and as narrow as a few miles off Peru. The average width is about 40 miles.
• The continental margins may have as much as 40 percent of the world reserves of oil and gas.
• Most fish are taken within 50 miles of shore, and almost all within 200 miles. The ocean supplies 13 percent of the world's animal protein consumption, but fish catches have fallen drastically in recent years. Fishermen have successfully used sophisticated equipment to increase their catches. As a result, however, the remaining fish are insufficient in number to replenish the stock. Over fishing is believed to have contributed to the drop in the fish catch in many parts of the world.
• Lying on the sea floor, mostly beyond 200 miles off shore and the continental margins, are great quantities of manganese nodules. These hold a number of metals that are becoming increasingly scarce-primarily nickel (used in making stainless steel), and copper and cobalt. Harvesting these nodules from the sea may eventually be cheaper than mining them from land.
• At least eight private and governmental groups have already made major investments to prepare to begin ocean mining. Involved are American, Canadian, French, German, and Japanese concerns.
• With increasing shortages of food, oil, and minerals, countries are claiming more rights over the sea off their shores. A few nations, including Peru and Ecuador, claim territorial jurisdiction out to 200 miles of coastal seas. But other countries claim only economic control out to 200 miles. (This is an important difference. Economic control gives a nation the right to all the fish and mineral wealth within those limits. Territorial jurisdiction in effect extends the boundaries of a nation's property. All military, navigational and economic rights on land would extend to this ocean territorial boundary. Economic rights would not cover military or navigational control.)
• If countries have territorial jurisdiction beyond three miles, there is a serious problem for the great naval powers, since there would be a threat to free transit through straits. If Spain were to have a 12-mile sea limit, for example, it could theoretically control the entrance to the Mediterranean Sea which, at Gibralter, is less than 10 miles wide. Under the long standing principle of innocent passage, merchant ships can pass through straits even when they lie within the territorial jurisdiction of another nation. However, warships, submarines, and planes are not considered "innocent" and their passage could legally be blocked or restricted by the nation(s) with territorial jurisdiction over a strait. Thus, the great naval powers, such as the United States, are opposed to any extension of jurisdiction which could restrict the passage of their ships and planes through important straits.
• Some countries, like the Philippines and Indonesia, claim a 12-mile jurisdiction beyond the outermost islands of their archipelago grouping, thus enabling them to enclose huge areas of ocean within their territorial waters. Look at a map of the world-or a portion of the world such as Southeast Asia. If you shaded in a 200-mile territorial extension of each country, what situations would you see occurring?
• Many of the nations of the world believe the oceans are the common heritage of mankind.
• Most of the poorest countries want an international agency to mine the mineral resources of the seabed and share the profits among nations. Burkina Faso, Mali, Botswana, Chad, Afghanistan, and Nepal are among the poorest nations of the world. Look at a map. What do these countries have in common? How does lack of access impede the commerce and economic growth of these nations? How does this help explain their position?

* Miles in this handout refers to nautical miles. A nautical mile is 1.85 kilometers or 1.15 land miles. Nautical miles are the international standard for measuring distances at sea; for example, a ship's speed is measured in knots (nautical miles per hour).

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