Well, in a manner of speaking.   News today that the UN has agreed that New Zealand has rights over approx 1.7 million square kilometres of seabed, outside of Exclusive Economic Zone.  This is the end result of a huge amount of work by scientists and MFAT officials over a number of years (including some good friends of mine- you know who you are!). 

The Continental Shelf Commission was a body set up under the auspices of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea to look at the status of the shelf beyond Exclusive Economic Zones.  New Zealand was the fifth country to make a submission to extend our continental shelf in 2006. The submission has been analysed by the UN for two years before agreement.

Essentially the decision gives New Zealand certainty about our rights to the shelf and, should we choose to, the ablity to use resources such as minerals and petroleum.  One of the caveats on the decision is that New Zealand must pay up to 7% of any revenue obtained from exploiting the resources in the new area to the International Seabed Authority to support developing countries in working to protect their own shelf rights.

From what I have heard New Zealand’s submission was world leading, and will be used as the model by other countries.  Hats off to the excellent public servants who led this work.