The exclusive economic zone of

Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

covers 830,389 km² in the Indian Ocean. It extends to a distance of 200

nautical mile A nautical mile is a unit of length used in air, marine, and space navigation, and for the definition of territorial waters. Historically, it was defined as the meridian arc length corresponding to one minute ( of a degree) of latitude. Today ...

s from the baselines, from which the breadth of the nation's

territorial waters The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potenti ...

is measured. In accordance with Law No. 37 passed in 1972, Somalia's EEZ falls under its territorial sovereignty.

Legislation

Law No. 37 on the Territorial Sea and Ports

On 10 September 1972, the Parliament of Somalia passed Law No. 37 on the Territorial Sea and Ports. The bill extended Somalia's territorial sea to 200 nautical miles within the continental and insular coasts. On 26 January 1989, the parliament passed legislation Law. 05, which approved the Somali Maritime Law (the Somali Maritime Law of 1988). The bill provides for a 200 nm territorial sea and exclusive economic zone.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

On 9 February 1989, the Somali parliament ratified the

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 167 c ...

(UNCLOS). The treaty defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world's oceans, and establishes guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine

Natural resource Natural resources are resources that are drawn from nature and used with few modifications. This includes the sources of valued characteristics such as commercial and industrial use, aesthetic value, scientific interest and cultural value. O ...

s. The 1982 UNCLOS provides for a territorial sea of up to 12 nm and an EEZ of up to 200 nm. It also provides for the possibility of an extended continental shelf extending up to 350 nm from shore, depending on the characteristics of the seabed adjacent to the coast.

Somali Maritime Law

On 30 June 2014, President of Somalia Hasan Sheikh Mohamud outlined the exclusive economic zone of Somalia in relation to the Somali Maritime Law of 1988 passed by the Somali parliament. It stipulates that the

Federal Republic of Somalia Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...

has: :Sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the seabed and subsoil and the superjacent waters, and with regard to other activities for the economic exploration and exploitation of the zone, such as the production of energy from water, currents and winds.

Delineation

In August 2014, the

Federal Government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

of Somalia formally asked the

International Court of Justice The International Court of Justice (ICJ; french: Cour internationale de justice, links=no; ), sometimes known as the World Court, is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN). It settles disputes between states in accordanc ...

"to determine, on the basis of international law, the complete course of the single maritime boundary dividing all the maritime areas appertaining to Somalia and to Kenya in the Indian Ocean."

Natural resources

Somalia has the longest coastline on mainland Africa,International Traffic Network, ''The world trade in sharks: a compendium of Traffic's regional studies'', (Traffic International: 1996), p.25. and some of the continent's richest fish stocks. The abundance in fisheries in the area is a result of the coastal

upwelling Upwelling is an oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water from deep water towards the ocean surface. It replaces the warmer and usually nutrient-depleted surface water. The nutr ...

of cold nutrient-rich subsurface oceanic waters. The upwelling results in the enrichment of

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. Ph ...

and

zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by ...

, which, in turn, make the conditions favorable for some small pelagic fish such as

sardines "Sardine" and "pilchard" are common names for various species of small, oily forage fish in the herring family Clupeidae. The term "sardine" was first used in English during the early 15th century, a folk etymology says it comes from the I ...

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

, and scad.Cushing 1969; Fisher et al 1973

References

External links

Proclamation by the President of the Federal Republic of SomaliaTable of Somali Laws Relevant to Maritime Law Enforcement
(dead link, archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20130828101915/https://www.imo.org/OurWork/Security/PIU/Documents/2013-03-18%20Somali%20Laws%20Relevant%20to%20Maritime%20Law%20enforcement.doc) {{World topic, title= Exclusive economic zones, Exclusive economic zone of, noredlinks=yes Economy of Somalia

Agriculture in Somalia