ABSTRACT

This chapter explores how during Covid-19 structural flaws in the law of the ocean became clear when seafarers were locked down and abandoned at sea. It examines two Articles in UNCLOS III that have resulted in the widespread use of Flags of Convenience (“Open Registry”), resulting in the devaluation of the more-than-human marine life and the spread of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, especially in the Global South. This situation, whereby small-scale fishing boats are fished out of the inshore, has been further enabled by another UNCLOS Article, which encourages long-distant fishing fleets to exploit the fishing resources of developing coastal nations. Using “chokepoint” as a concept, this chapter explicates the underlying tensions both at the time of UNCLOS’s elaboration and in the aftermath of its ratification. The humanitarian ethos of the time did not extend to the consideration or protection of Indigenous people’s sea country rights, effectively locking them out of their sea countries.