Captain Ted Sputh

People asking questions lost in confusion, well I tell them there's no problem, only solutions.  John Lennon, “Watching the Wheels”

There’s a story circulating in the yachting industry about a yacht’s Guests that wanted to go jet skiing off the coast of Italy.  All of the Guests were accomplished in water sports.  However, Italy has very strict laws regarding the use of personal water craft which stipulates the need for a license with a certificate of competency.  The certificate of competency course takes at least one day and the Guests were only going to be on board for seven days.  The problem was whether to please the Guests or please the government.  The solution…go beyond the territorial limit for a day of fun in the sun.

In the eighteenth century, coastal states had jurisdiction over coastal waters for 3 nautical miles (3.45 miles or 5.55 kilometers).  This measure was originally derived by the average length of a cannon shot, hence the portion of an ocean that a sovereign state could defend from shore.    During Prohibition, the United States agreed by treaty to arrests within a one-hour sailing distance from shore.   

Territorial water or territorial sea was defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea as waters that extend, at the most, 12 nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal state as it measures at the low water line.  Territorial waters are then regarded as the sovereign territory of the state.  Since the late twentieth century the “12 mile limit” has become almost universally accepted.  

Areas outside of territorial waters are referred to as international waters unless; a state’s territorial waters includes a contiguous zone.  This zone can extend from the outer edge of the territorial sea to 24 nautical miles from the baseline. 

 The state can exert limited control in punishing and preventing the “infringement of its customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations within its territorial sea (including the contiguous zone)”. This jurisdiction can encompass a 12 nautical mile width.  However, in the contiguous zone there is no standard rule for resolving conflicts.  The states with the question or problem must decide on a solution. 

The rules that govern the use of the sea are a mixture of treaties, customary law which has developed over centuries and continually developing international law.  Given the unique characteristics of the sea and its use for trade, for pleasure and for discovery, it has long been recognized that ships of all states have the “right of innocent passage” through any state’s territorial sea.  Innocent passage must be continuous and expeditious. If a vessel stops or anchors, it must be for honorable reasons such as rendering assistance to persons, ships or aircrafts that are in distress or danger.  Force majeure or acts of nature are also considered reasons for interrupting innocent passage. In essence, if your intent is just to cruise the coast,  behave yourself; don’t disrupt the peace and power on through when you are in a coastal state’s territorial waters.      

Battles for the freedom of navigation have been fought as recently as 1981 and in 1989 when Libya claimed the entire Gulf of Sidra as its territorial waters. The complication of territorial and contiguous zones is as daunting as the number of coastlines that line the seas.  To further exacerbate the confusion, the continental shelf and the economic zone can extend the outer limits of a territorial sea to a maximum of 200 nautical miles (370.4 kilometers).

Points to remember…

·         A coastal nation has maximum control over its internal waters.

·         A coastal nation has average control over territorial waters.

·         A coastal nation has minimal control over the contiguous zones.

·         A coastal nation has maximum control of economic resources within its exclusive economic zone.

·         A coastal nation has maximum control of resources under its continental shelf.

·         A coastal nation offers the right of innocent passage through their territorial sea only if the vessel is continuous, expeditious and peaceful.

·         A coastal nation is powerful.  Visiting their internal and territorial sea is a privilege not a right.

·         Study your charts and become familiar with the Rules of the Road for the country that you are visiting.

Mariners should be very familiar with the lines of demarcation on charts for COLREGs (International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea) or Collisions Regulations.  Inshore of this line are internal waters outside the line denotes international waters.  COLREGs are documents that are suitable for guiding human behavior but there are often multiple rules that are simultaneously in effect like internal, territorial, contiguous, economic, and continental shelf zones that may all have different rules that are applicable in the same situation.  However, ignorantia legis neminem excusat …ignorance of the law excuses no one and I’ll bet Illiud latine dici non protest!