Fishing Industry in The Maldives - EEZ

EEZ

As with other countries, the Maldivian 200-nautical-mile (370 km) exclusive economic zone (EEZ) gives its fishing industry special fishing rights. It covers about 900,000 square kilometres. This area, plus the inland areas, are the areas which the Maldives can, under international law, regard as its fishing grounds.

For most coastal countries, the EEZ roughly coincides with the continental shelf, the fishing rich area of relatively shallow water, less than 200 metres deep, that extends from most continental coastlines. The EEZ gives fishing and mineral rights to this shelf. In the case of the Madives, there is no continental shelf, since the Maldives are not part of a continent. The coral atoll equivalent of a continental shelf is the shallow coral floors surrounding the islands and within the coral basins and lagoons. The total land (not immersed) area of the islands is about 300 km2, and the total coral shelf area is about 35,000 km2.

This shelf area is large compared to the land area (120 times larger), but still small compared to deep ocean part of the Maldivian EEZ (30 times smaller).

There are four areas in the Maldives where fisheries can operate.

• Land areas: The islands in the Maldives are too small to have inland lakes and rivers, so there are no inland fisheries. Nor have there been any land based aquaculture activities to date.

• Coral lagoons: Many of the islands in the Maldives have subsided, leaving lagoons wholly or partially enclosed by a ring of coral (see diagrams below right). These lagoons teem with reef fish and other aquatic life.

• The outer coral shelf: which slopes away steeply, and does not offer as rich fishing grounds as the inner lagoons do.

• Deep ocean: which is by far the largest part of the Maldivian EEZ. This area is inhabited by pelagic fish, small schooling forage fish, sometimes called bait fish, and larger fish who predate on them, such as tuna and shark. By far, the greatest volume of catch in the Maldives comes from this area.