ABSTRACT
This chapter will analyse the provisions of the 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention, concerning the protection of marine mammals. It will focus in Articles 64, 65 and 120 of the UNCLOS and will evidence that the succinct drafting and the lack of the attention to the detail in pertinent articles had left the protection of marine mammals very sketchy and imperfect. The example of the protection of whales will be presented, focused on the analysis of the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) and other pertinent international instruments. It will be argued that the result of the succinct drafting of the Articles of the UNCLOS has impacted the question of the jurisdiction of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which is the main organ of the ICRW (both territorial and regarding species covered). In the view of the author of this chapter the UNCLOS could have acted as the umbrella treaty to the ICRW and forge more tangible link with this Convention, the way it had done with the, for example, International Convention on the Pollution from Ships (MARPOL) as it is understood that standards set but the MARPOL are internationally agreed minimum standards. It is also a generally accepted view that the “competent international organisation” as mentioned in several Articles of the UNCLOS is the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). There is no such a general understanding in relation IWC thus creating competing jurisdictions with other organisations.
