The UN convention on the law of the sea and its implications for third world countries: The case of tuna fishery in South Pacific countries

Abstract

The significance of the EEZ for the 22 developing island countries and territories of the South Pacific is best brought out when one realizes that the combined area of these zones covers 30.57 million km², contributing at least 30 percent of the world's tuna harvest each year. However, presently 90 percent of the region's total catches is taken by distant-water fishing fleets from Japan, the US, South Korea and Taiwan. In order to increase the benefits derived from the exploitation of their tuna resources, each Pacific island country has to select its own development strategy to effectively utilize the resource. In this paper, some principal development options are illustrated by case studies from the South Pacific.