Sedentary Species

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) considers sedentary species as part of the natural resources of the coastal State's continental shelf (Article 68). The 'natural resources' include the sedentary species as defined in the 1958 Convention on the Continental Shelf (CSC), that is to say, 'all living organisms which, at the harvestable stage, either are immobile on or under the seabed or are unable to move except in constant physical contact with the seabed or the subsoil' (CSC, Article 2 (4)). While it includes without doubt oysters, clams and mussels, there has been considerable controversy as to whether the concept of "constant physical contact with the sea bed" includes crabs and lobsters. As a result, disputes have arisen in this area especially as regards those two crustaceans.

 

Coastal States' sovereign rights over sedentary species are absolute. Where the continental shelf extends beyond the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the coastal State retains sovereign rights over all sedentary species, but has no jurisdiction over any free-swimming species in the superjacent waters.

 

As regards conservation, the general rules governing fishing in the EEZ does not apply to sedentary species (Article 68). On the continental shelf, UNCLOS considers only the exploration and exploitation of natural resources and not their conservation. Within its EEZ a coastal State is under no obligation to take any management or conservation measures as respects sedentary species (nor to permit foreign fishermen access to any surplus that there may be). Nevertheless it has been argued that UNCLOS' objectives regarding marine living resources (Preamble) and the conservation measures required for all other marine zones, including the high seas, should lead coastal States to take conservation measures with regard to these species. This view is supported by CSC which provides that the exploration of the continental shelf and the exploitation of its natural resources must not result in any unjustifiable interference with conservation of the living resources of the sea (Article 5).