ABSTRACT
Prior to the establishment of exclusive economic zones (EEZs) in the late 1970s, most of the important commercial species were located in international waters (i.e. outside the jurisdiction of coastal states). The narrowness of coastal states’ maritime zones meant that the amount of transboundary movement between adjacent states and between the high seas and territorial seas was limited. Some migratory fish moved from the high seas to territorial waters at certain seasons, as with cod off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador and herring in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea: others crossed the boundary between territorial seas of adjacent coastal states, as in the case of herring between the Bay of Fundy and Maine. The most important transboundary (or straddling) stocks fell primarily under the management regime of the international community through regional organisations such as the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic (ICNAF) or the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Commission in European waters. The failure of these organisations to manage transboundary and other offshore stocks properly during the intense build-up of fishing effort in North Atlantic coastal areas prompted coastal states to declare 200 nautical mile (nm) exclusive economic/fishing zones in 1977 in an effort to safeguard the foundation of their inshore and offshore fisheries.
