The implications of the exclusive economic zone and eez management for bermuda, a small midocean island commonwealth territory

Abstract

This article explores the implications of managing a 200‐nautical‐mile zone in excess of 100,000 square nautical miles for Bermuda, a British dependency that is one of 13 small, midocean island Commonwealth territories that possess similar 200‐nautical‐mile entitlements. With a population of just over 60,000 and a land area of only 20 square miles, Bermuda's 200‐mile exclusive fisheries zone (it has yet to claim an exclusive economic zone) is larger than that of countries such as Cuba, Ireland, and South Korea. Bermuda's local fishing industry is concentrated in the shallow waters of the Bermuda platform, essentially in internal or territorial waters. The country has a buoyant economy based on offshore financial services and tourism, but foreign deep‐sea fishing has never been systematically examined. For a combination of geophysical, commercial, and political reasons, it is argued, Bermuda has to date taken no coherent steps to manage or explore the potentialities of its 200‐mile zone.