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In other words coastal State regulatory competence in the EEZ is not plenary, but confined to the matters expressly indicated in UNCLOS in respect of which sovereign rights or jurisdictional powers are granted to a coastal State. Moreover UNCLOS subjects the exercise of this competence to various conditions and obligations explicitly foreseen, such as the freedom of navigation of other States’ vessels.264 Such rights apply for the purpose of ‘exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil’ (article 56) as well as other activities for the economic exploitation of the zone.265 Moreover UNCLOS recognises the rights of each coastal State over its adjacent continental shelf, which comprises the seabed and subsoil of the ‘submarine areas’ beyond the territorial sea and which may extend as far the natural prolongation of the land territory to the outer end of the continental margin or to a distance of 200 nm from the baseline in cases where the outer edge of the continental margin does not extend that far. In other words some but not all coastal States may be entitled to claim an outer continental shelf that extends beyond 200 nm from the baseline and thus beyond the outer edge of the EEZ. In such cases the coastal State must submit information on its outer limits on the basis of criteria specified in Article 76 of UNCLOS to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). The limits of the outer continental shelf established by the coastal State ‘on the basis of’ the recommendations of the CLCS are final and binding (article 78(8)). A number of continental shelf claims around the world have been submitted and are currently outstanding.266 As regards its continental shelf each coastal State has ‘sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources’. Such rights include the exploitation of living organisms belonging to ‘sedentary species’ (which are defined as organisms, which at the harvestable stage, are either ‘immobile, on or under the sea-bed or are unable to move except in constant physical contact with the sea-bed or the subsoil’) as well as other activities relating to the seabed and its subsoil such as the extraction of oil and minerals. Beyond the outer edge of the continental shelf lies the ‘Area’, defined by UNCLOS as the ‘seabed and ocean floor and subsoil thereof, beyond the limits of national jurisdiction’, and which is the subject of Part XI of UNLCOS. No State may claim sovereignty or sovereign rights over any part of the Area or its resources. Instead, all rights in the ‘resources’ of the Area are ‘vested in mankind as a whole’ on whose behalf the International Seabed Authority (ISA), established pursuant to UNCLOS, is to act. Further provisions on the functioning of the ISA are set out in the Part XI Deep Sea Mining Agreement. However, although Part XI does set out a number of generally applicable principles with regard to the conduct of States in relation to the Area including peace, security international cooperation and mutual understanding, the responsibility to ensure compliance and liability for damage, the use of the Area for exclusively peaceful purposes, the focus of Part XI is on the exploration and exploitation the resources of the Area, which are defined in article 133 of UNCLOS as ‘all solid, liquid or gaseous mineral resources in situ in the Area at or beneath the seabed, including polymetallic nodules’. In other words the focus of Part XI is on the mineral resources of the Area rather than the marine genetic resources found there. 264 Freedom of navigation in the EEZ is not absolute, but a balancing exercise between the coastal State and the flag State, inasmuch as by UNCLOS Article 58(3) its exercise is subject to due regard to the coastal State’s rights and duties and compliance with its laws in so far as they are not incompatible with Part V of the Convention. 266 See http://www.un.org/uropa/los/clcs_new/commission_submissions.htm 265 It follows too that a coastal State has jurisdiction over the harvest and culture of marine algae within its EEZ as well as its territorial sea. 196 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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