New Zealand is set to gain jurisdiction over an area of seabed six times the size of its landmass, giving it control of potentially enormous mineral resources that lie on or under the seabed beyond its 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
It includes a large area in the Tasman called Lord Howe Rise, a block extending north into the Pacific Ocean toward Tonga and Fiji, an area skirting the Chatham Rise to the east and additional areas to the far south.
New Zealand’s foreign affairs ministry legal adviser Gerard van Bohemen said the U.N. Law of the Sea commission was believed to have made its decision last week and the ministry expected to hear any day.
The claim was lodged two years ago after a 10-year $29.3 million research project to work out the limits of the shelf.
Even with a favorable ruling from the commission, agreements on New Zealand shelf boundaries still have to be reached with Fiji and Tonga.
Undersea boundaries in the Tasman Sea and the southern oceans were agreed with Australia four years ago. GNS Science ocean exploration chief Ray Wood believed that securing the shelf would be a huge benefit for New Zealand in the long run.
There could be large oil deposits on the Lord Howe and Chatham rises, gold and other valuable mineral deposits on the Three Kings Ridge to the north of New Zealand, and manganese nodules worth billions in the southern parts of the shelf. “The real challenge for us now is to work out what we have and how we use it in the future.”
More research was needed to identify resources that could be important to New Zealand.
Centre for Strategic Studies director Peter Cozens said securing the continental shelf would be the biggest gain since 1978 when New Zealand won the right to control its 200-mile exclusive economic zone. It offered fantastic potential, but it again showed the urgent need for New Zealand to develop an oceans policy detailing management and protection of the sea and its resources.
