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Background
At the 28th Session of SOPAC held in October 1999, the Governing Council endorsed a proposal for the transfer of the Maritime Boundaries Delimitation Project from FFA to SOPAC. Similar endorsement was forthcoming from the Forum Fisheries Committee (FFC) at their 44th Meeting in May 2000, subject to preparation of a joint submission by FFA and SOPAC seeking approval from AusAID (Donor) for the Project and remaining funds to be transferred to SOPAC.
A review of the data and information collected during the FFA Maritime Boundaries Delimitation Project (1991-2000) and transferred to SOPAC in February 2002, was undertaken during the 2001/2002 SOPAC Work Programme. This activity relates to the specific task RT2000.048 in the 2001/2002 SOPAC Work Programme, approved and endorsed by the 30th SOPAC Governing Council Session, to design, develop and implement a Regional Maritime Boundaries Project Initiative.
SOPAC currently manages Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Project under the Ocean & Islands Programme. The major objective of the Project is to assist Pacific Island Countries to complete the determination of baselines for defining their territorial and archipelagic seas; contiguous zones and EEZs.
Goals
The Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Project is assisting countries deal with the critical issue of delineation of their maritime boundaries with a focus on:
- Providing maritime boundaries delimitation data and information for the member countries to assist in preparation of claims for delimitation of their EEZ;
- Developing comprehensive data-sets which facilitate definition of the legal and administrative offshore limits for member countries, in accordance with the provisions of UNCLOS;
- Building national capacity within member countries to undertake these assessments;
- Providing advice and assistance to member countries on relevant provisions of UNCLOS;
- Acting as an information and data repository.
Status of Negotiations
Within the Pacific Forum member countries there are some 45-shared maritime boundaries between them. Some of these boundaries have been signed and ratified but many are still to be negotiated.
Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Information System (PIRMBIS)
To assist countries with further agreement and ratification, a comprehensive Geographic Information System known as the Pacific Islands Regional Maritime Boundaries Information System (PIRMBIS) has been designed and developed at SOPAC to hold digital information about the coastlines and low water lines of member countries.
PIRMBIS has the following three components:
- Data User Guide;
- Quality Information Files (metadata); and
- Data Files (contains the main tables that generate the maritime boundaries, using MarZone? which has been customised to address specific technical issues in the Pacific Islands Region such as archipelagic straight baselines).
Since 2004, SOPAC, in consultation with Geoscience Australia and the member countries, has been involved with the capture and validation of all existing baseline data and incorporation into PIRMBIS.
PIRMBIS will serve as a regional database and GIS containing all baseline and maritime boundaries data and information, compliant with UNCLOS. All information is held confidentially until such time as countries decide to release it into the public domain.
MarZone
MarZone, a PC application, computes maritime boundaries in accordance with the various provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
MarZone was developed by Melbourne University specifically for the Australian Maritime Boundaries Information System (AMBIS). SOPAC, in consultation with Geoscience Australia, has selected MarZone to assist in generating the maritime zone boundaries for those Pacific Island coastal States that are part of the Regional Maritime Boundaries Project. However, since ArcInfo is the preferred GIS platform for AMBIS, modifications are required to customise MarZone for MapInfo, the GIS tool used to design PIRMBIS. As a result, a MarZone File Exchange (Mfe) translator has been developed by the University.
Project activities
Regional Workshops
Project Regional Consultation Workshop
A Regional Maritime Boundaries Project Consultation was held at the Mocambo Hotel in Nadi, Fiji, from Wednesday 24th April to Friday 26th April 2002. The consultation was co-ordinated by the SOPAC and co-sponsored by the Government of Australia and Taiwan.The intention of this consultation is to seek key stakeholder input into the proposed regional maritime boundaries delimitation initiative. The completed report on the consultation workshop is available from the SOPAC virtual library as SOPAC Miscellaneous Report 462.
PIRMBIS Training
Since March 2004, SOPAC has conducted three separate training workshops on familiarising technical staff from countries on PIRMBIS and MarZone,while using their country’s existing data sets.. This has been a joint initiative by SOPAC and Geoscience Australia, through the assistance of Mr Colin French, Manager of the Australian Maritime Boundaries Project.
Regional Training Course on Article 76 of UNCLOS
Training course focussed on the Delineation of the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf beyond 200 nautical miles and the Preparation of a submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. This was held jointly with the United Nations Division of Ocean Affairs & Law of the Sea (UNDOALOS), and the Commonwealth Secretariat (ComSec) in Fiji from the 28th of February to 4th of March 2005.
Link to the Component Extended Continental Shelf Activities
Regional Workshop on Building Negotiation Skills
Workshop was organised by SOPAC in collaboration with the ComSec in October 2005, with the aim of training technical and policy officials with the legal and technical requirements of maritime boundary negotiations (under UNCLOS).
Sub-regional Technical Training Workshops on PIRMBIS and MarZone
The first sub-regional technical training was conducted from the 8th - 12th of May at the USP IT Lab in Majuro, Marshall Islands.Participants that were invited to the workshop were from Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati and Marshall Islands.
The second sub-regional workshop was conducted from the 28th of October - 01st of November at the USP Emalus Campus IT Lab in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Participants were from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
The aim of both of the training workshops was to provide an opportunity for the invited technical participants to work on their country datasets with the technical assistance from Geoscience Australia (through the technical assistance of Maritime Boundaries Advisors Mr Bill Hirst and Mr Colin French) and the SOPAC Project staff to generate their own maritime boundaries.
Country Maritime Reports
In December 2005, OIP held a workshop at which the maritime boundary limits were identified for Cook Islands, Niue and Tuvalu and provided a report to those country representatives for further consideration. Also completed were the maritime limits for Nauru.
The SOPAC Maritime Boundaries team have been working closely with technical representatives from project countries on their national maritime boundaries initiatives at the Secretariat. These include the following activities:-
- Computing the notional/nominal maritime EEZ limits from updated national baselines ( includes Fiji, PNG, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Tokelau and American Samoa).
- Computing the provisional/nominal median lines between neighbouring countries
- Consult with project technical partners, Geoscience Australia, to independently review these country reports and technical work undertaken to date.
GPS Field Survey Campaigns
The 3 phases of the GPS Field survey campaigns were carried out by SOPAC Maritime Boundaries project team, the Fiji Lands Department of the Control Section, Fiji Hydrographic Office and funded by the Fiji Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Phase 1: Southern Fiji Group field survey,August 1st - 15th 2007
The aim of the survey campaign was to upgrade the Fiji Geodetic Datum (FGD) to an International Terrestrial Reference System (ITRS), which is an internationally reference system for the purpose of Fiji’s submission preparation for the potential Extended Continental Shelf (ECS).
Also the campaign conducted offset reef delineation on the Ceva-i-Ra, Tuvana-i-Ra, Tuvana-i-Colo,Vuata Ono (reef near Ono-i-Lau island), Vuata Vatoa (reef near Vatoa island), Naevo island and Ono-i-Lau that are critical to the base point determination for the southern part of Fiji’s maritime boundaries with adjacent state of Tonga/Vanuatu/New Caledonia.
Phase 2: Verification of the Fiji Archieplagic Straight baseline (ASBs) under the Fiji Marine Spaces Act 1978, July 8th - 24th 2008
The aim of this 2nd phase was to upgrade the overall local geodetic datum to ITRF system, including Rotuma. The current gazetted base points are in an obsolete reference system and will be updated to the ITRF system to be better recognised and acceptable in the global reference system.
Phase 3: Verification of the Rotuma's Archieplagic Straight baseline (ASBs) under the Fiji Marine Spaces Act 1978, July 28th - August 2nd 2008
This was to complete the northern baseline survey to an updated ITRF system for EEZ boundary negotiations with Tuvalu.
PROJECT STAFF
Emily Artack
Maritime Boundaries Project Officer (Cartographer)
Ocean & Islands Programme
Tel: +679 3381377
Fax: +679 3370040
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Andrick Lal
Senior Project Officer-Surveying
Ocean & Islands Programme
Tel: +679 3381377
Fax: +679 3370040
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