OPRF implements the project on "Research for Issues accompanied by the Extended Continental Shelf." This year the project focuses on "the post-recommendation phase," i.e. what kind of actions a coastal State should take when it receives the recommendation by the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). It may include not only the procedural actions including the deposit of charts and relevant information with United Nations Secretary-General in accordance with Article 76 (9) of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) but elaborating the national ocean policy such as how to explore the extended continental shelf and exploit its natural resources for prosperity. As we considered it of great significance, OPRF held the International Seminar "Extension of the Continental Shelf and National Ocean Policy-lessons learnt from precedent cases of establishing the limits on the basis of recommendations -". There are only two cases of the completing the establishment of the outer limits of the continental shelf in accordance with Article 76 (9) of the UNCLOS, i.e. Mexico and Ireland. That is why we invited the experts from these two countries.

The seminar was held under the chairmanship of Mr. Moritaka Hayashi, Professor Emeritus, Waseda University, the seminar was held. As the first speaker, Professor Atsuko Kanehara, Sophia University, gave the lecture on the right of coastal States under the continental shelf regime beyond 200 nautical miles. She gave the details of the possible situations that enable "unilateral" establishment by a coastal State of the limits of the continental shelf.

Mr. Galo Carrera, scientific advisor to Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and consultant in the establishment of the continental shelf, gave the presentation on the whole process of Mexican Submission regarding the western polygon in the Gulf of Mexico. He emphasized that it took substantially only one year for consideration of the Mexican submission by CLCS. CLCS adopted its recommendation in March 2009 for the Mexican submission made in December 2007. That is the fastest case so far. It seems to be because the partial submission was made in the above-mentioned area delimited between Mexico and the U.S. by means of a boundary agreement signed in June 2000. He also pointed out that sustainable development of the deep parts of the Gulf of Mexico is a high policy priority for his country and that investment and technological development for deep water environmental control and hydrocarbon exploitation remained to be challenging.

Mr. Peter Croker, Petroleum Exploration Specialist of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources of Ireland, described in his presentation the process of the first submission made by Ireland: the partial submission for the Porcupine Abyssal Plain (PAP) area in May 2005. Another two partial submissions made by Ireland were as follows: the one is for the Celtic Sea and the Bay of Biscay area which was submitted in May 2006 in the form of joint submission with France, Spain and U.K., and the other is for the Hatton-Rockall area which was submitted in March 2009.
Contrary to these two submissions, the case for the PAP area has no overlapping claim and unresolved boundary issue. He also gave the details of the data collection process for the PAP area and went on to the discussion about the prospectivity of the area for natural resources as well as the licensing issues beyond 200 nautical miles under Article 82 of the UNCLOS. He pointed out that the measures to protect the marine environment and the international royalty under Article 82 regime had to be considered.

Date
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
13:30-17:00 (Seminar)　17:15-19:00 (Reception)

Venue
Nippon Zaidan Building　（1-2-2 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo）

Organized by
Ocean Policy Research Foundation

Sponsored by
The Nippon Foundation

Participants
About 140 persons