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Artificial islands
August 1974 • Volume 5 • Number 8
Artificial Islands Modern industrial society has a good many activities which most of us prefer to see located as far away from us as possible. Mention plans for a new airport and immediately a massive and vociferous protest movement springs to life within a ten mile radius of the site. Petrochemical complexes producing or stocking noxious, explosive and downright dangerous chemicals are equally unacceptable neighbours. Industries causing heavy air pollution have been slightly more tolerable, perhaps because we have always had to put up with them. So are nuclear power plants---at a somewhat greater distance --perhaps because they are silent, smokeless and have hitherto, had a reasonably safe record. The public however, is getting noticeably more edgy about those nuisances and hazards that previously, if not exactly welcomed, were not sufficiently alarming to cause much protest. Popular feeling has moved sharply against the hazards of air pollution, zinc smelting, nuclear generating and many other industrial activities. In countries like Britain, Holland and Japan it is quite impossible to move anti-social and dangerous activities far from the centres of population if for no other reason than that these countries are so densely populated. What better solution then, than to win new land, reclaimed from the sea, and concentrate docks, airports, petrochemical and other industries on it ? This has happened often enough in estuaries as docks and their associated paraphenalia have edged downstream to deeper water, but it is becoming a realistic possibility on a much grander scale in the open sea and the prospect of this happening raises problems of an altogether different magnitude. Constructing artificial islands at sea is not exactly a new idea: coastal waters and some deeper waters are already littered with fixed structures ranging from moored data-gathering installations (referred to as buoys but in fact a good deal bigger than the relatively modest structures used as aids to navigators) to genuine man-
made islands. The oil and gas industry has been operating offshore for many years, and platforms and submerged structures are now to be found far from land in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. If, as seems likely, production platforms can be constructed in water up to 300 m deep, considerable areas of the high sea can expect such a visitation if they prove to overlie oil. Off the Japanese coast there are already several artificial islands of rock and earth construction in about 40 m of water, providing access to offshore coal mines. mining engineers are certainly prepared to consider the construction of islands for the underground mining of submarine reserves, and these could be in water at least as deep as that at the edge of the continential shelf. Offshore harbours to provide loading facilities for giant tankers have been built in many parts of the world, notably in the Persian Gulf, and at the end of 1972 there were 106 offshore terminal systems in use throughout the world. Floating airports and floating platforms for giant nuclear power plants are a technical possibility and might well appear on the scene by the turn of the century. In the United Kingdom, the Pilkington Glass Age Development Committee has proposed a city designed as a glass and concrete offshore island to be built 15 miles from Great Yarmouth off the Norfolk coast in the North Sea. This sea-city would accommodate a selfsufficient community of 30,000. The materials and technology for such a project already exist so that although the scheme is 50 years ahead of its time, it is already a practical possibility. Indeed, the Japanese are building the word's first floating city Aquapolis, which will be anchored off the coast of Okinawa for the International Ocean Exposition in 1975. A study of the legal problems arising from the development of artificial islands in international waters was recently made by Nicholas Papadakis for the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies. One
Pollution of Firth of Forth & Cromarty Firth Toxicity of Oil Dispersants Red Mud
•
Whaling
Macmillan Journals Limited
Fluoride in Marine Animals
• •
Spear Fishing
Heavy Metals and Polychaetes e
Sewage
•
Wetland Fowl
Artificial Islands
News Japanese Whaling Wetland Wildfowl Red Mud Effect on Sewage Purification Attack on Spear-Fishing
Reports Toxicity of Oil-Sinking Agents R. A. A. Blackman Oil Pollution in the Cromarty Firth
page 113
115 115 115 115 115
116 118
A. Currie
Fluoride in Marine Animals D. A. Wright and D. W. Davison Pollution Studies in the Firth of Forth Kathleen J. Anderson and P. A. Read Induction of Abnormal Polychaete Larvae by Heavy Metals D. J. Reish, F. Piltz, J. M. Martin and
119 121 125
J. Q. Word
Book Review Study of an African Equatorial Lake
126
Correspondence Red Mud
127
Conference Disposal of Sewage Sludge
128
Correction
128
does not have to wait for the fulfilment of some of the wilder dreams of futurologists to discover what these problems are, many are already with us in a mild form. At the very least, artificial islands and moored structures are obstacles to the freedom of navigation and fishing. The existence of 6,000 oil and other platforms in the Gulf of Mexico forced the introduction of 'Shipping Safety Fairways' which, sensible and practical though they may be, infringe the letter and spirit of the law of free and untrammelled passage of shipping on the high seas. More important is the fact that the establishment of artificial islands may be by individuals or corporate bodies outside the territorial limits of a neighbouring state and specifically designed to evade its laws. We have already seen this in European waters during the last few years with the appearance of 'pirate' radio and television stations circumventing the state monopoly of broadcasting in the adjacent countries. It is a short step from this to the setting up of an independent sovereign state, In Italy, an engineer, Signor Rosa, built an artificial island off the Adriatic resort of l~irr~"i and early in 1968 declared it a sovereign state. Mother case involved two rival companies wishing to construct artificial islands on reefs 8 km east of Elliot Key off the south-east coast 114
of Florida to be named "Atlantis, City of Gold' and 'Grand Capri Republic'. There is considerable financial advantage to the unscrupulous who manage to set up an independent business in this way. It proved difficult enough in la~ to deal with 'pirate' radio stations, which at the worst were creating a nuisance by cluttering up overcrowded broadcasting frequency bands. But such irresponsible unscrupulousness could easily extend to providing flags of convenience or havens for the industrial polluter who would thereby escape the more stringent controls gradually developing in the established states responsive to international pressures. Even in the more probable event of artificial islands being national rather than commercial enterprises, the likelihood of increased pollution is still there. Control of pollution by industrial complexes discharging wastes into inshore waters is lax enough: once a site becomes a major industrial centre it has little amenity value and generally little fishery potential, so that the motivation for clean seas is slight. Industrial complexes based on artificial islands far from shore would be even less in view and, as likely as not, even less urgency would be felt about controlling their pollution. On the other side of the coin, the governments of Britain, the Netherlands and other North Sea countries have had a scheme before them for more than two years, to construct an artificial island in the middle of the North Sea to treat industrial and domestic wastes from these countries instead of doing this on the mainland. Whether or not quite the same concern would be felt about the nature of the effluent from such a plant lying over the horizon as about one on the doorstep is another question. Looking ahead, it is not the prospect of a few more 'pirate' radio and television stations, the risk of increased pollution, or the cluttering up of the seas with man-made structures for the world's shipping to pick its way through, that worries international lawyers. It is what happens around these artificial islands. Are they entitled, as natural islands are, to a territorial sea, continental shelf and international seabed area ? If it is technically possible to construct an artificial island in water as deep as that at the edge of the continental shelf, or on submerged sea mounts beyond that, there may be very rich pickings indeed for the constructers of the islands. They may by this device be able to stake a mining claim to a great tract of ocean floor. A problem for international lawyers is that legal definitions have not yet caught up with technological developments. Many of the structures now appearing on or in the seas are neither ships nor islands. At present for legal purposes they are regarded as one or the other, but there is no clear definition in international law of what is a ship and what is an island. As Papadakis points out, it would be of considerable significance if artificial islands were to be assimilated to natural islands, since 'every island has its own territorial seas'. The UN Law of the Sea conference at Caracas is merely the opening round of a scramble for marine resources which is likely to go on for several decades. At present it is looking only at the static position of existing states; but clearly, if artificial islands are seriously promoted in the coming years, it may have to deal with a fluid and rapidly changing situation filled with a potential for trouble and strife.
Artificial Islands Modern industrial society has a good many activities which most of us prefer to see located as far away from us as possible. Mention plans for a new airport and immediately a massive and vociferous protest movement springs to life within a ten mile radius of the site. Petrochemical complexes producing or stocking noxious, explosive and downright dangerous chemicals are equally unacceptable neighbours. Industries causing heavy air pollution have been slightly more tolerable, perhaps because we have always had to put up with them. So are nuclear power plants---at a somewhat greater distance --perhaps because they are silent, smokeless and have hitherto, had a reasonably safe record. The public however, is getting noticeably more edgy about those nuisances and hazards that previously, if not exactly welcomed, were not sufficiently alarming to cause much protest. Popular feeling has moved sharply against the hazards of air pollution, zinc smelting, nuclear generating and many other industrial activities. In countries like Britain, Holland and Japan it is quite impossible to move anti-social and dangerous activities far from the centres of population if for no other reason than that these countries are so densely populated. What better solution then, than to win new land, reclaimed from the sea, and concentrate docks, airports, petrochemical and other industries on it ? This has happened often enough in estuaries as docks and their associated paraphenalia have edged downstream to deeper water, but it is becoming a realistic possibility on a much grander scale in the open sea and the prospect of this happening raises problems of an altogether different magnitude. Constructing artificial islands at sea is not exactly a new idea: coastal waters and some deeper waters are already littered with fixed structures ranging from moored data-gathering installations (referred to as buoys but in fact a good deal bigger than the relatively modest structures used as aids to navigators) to genuine man-
made islands. The oil and gas industry has been operating offshore for many years, and platforms and submerged structures are now to be found far from land in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. If, as seems likely, production platforms can be constructed in water up to 300 m deep, considerable areas of the high sea can expect such a visitation if they prove to overlie oil. Off the Japanese coast there are already several artificial islands of rock and earth construction in about 40 m of water, providing access to offshore coal mines. mining engineers are certainly prepared to consider the construction of islands for the underground mining of submarine reserves, and these could be in water at least as deep as that at the edge of the continential shelf. Offshore harbours to provide loading facilities for giant tankers have been built in many parts of the world, notably in the Persian Gulf, and at the end of 1972 there were 106 offshore terminal systems in use throughout the world. Floating airports and floating platforms for giant nuclear power plants are a technical possibility and might well appear on the scene by the turn of the century. In the United Kingdom, the Pilkington Glass Age Development Committee has proposed a city designed as a glass and concrete offshore island to be built 15 miles from Great Yarmouth off the Norfolk coast in the North Sea. This sea-city would accommodate a selfsufficient community of 30,000. The materials and technology for such a project already exist so that although the scheme is 50 years ahead of its time, it is already a practical possibility. Indeed, the Japanese are building the word's first floating city Aquapolis, which will be anchored off the coast of Okinawa for the International Ocean Exposition in 1975. A study of the legal problems arising from the development of artificial islands in international waters was recently made by Nicholas Papadakis for the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies. One
Pollution of Firth of Forth & Cromarty Firth Toxicity of Oil Dispersants Red Mud
•
Whaling
Macmillan Journals Limited
Fluoride in Marine Animals
• •
Spear Fishing
Heavy Metals and Polychaetes e
Sewage
•
Wetland Fowl
Artificial Islands
News Japanese Whaling Wetland Wildfowl Red Mud Effect on Sewage Purification Attack on Spear-Fishing
Reports Toxicity of Oil-Sinking Agents R. A. A. Blackman Oil Pollution in the Cromarty Firth
page 113
115 115 115 115 115
116 118
A. Currie
Fluoride in Marine Animals D. A. Wright and D. W. Davison Pollution Studies in the Firth of Forth Kathleen J. Anderson and P. A. Read Induction of Abnormal Polychaete Larvae by Heavy Metals D. J. Reish, F. Piltz, J. M. Martin and
119 121 125
J. Q. Word
Book Review Study of an African Equatorial Lake
126
Correspondence Red Mud
127
Conference Disposal of Sewage Sludge
128
Correction
128
does not have to wait for the fulfilment of some of the wilder dreams of futurologists to discover what these problems are, many are already with us in a mild form. At the very least, artificial islands and moored structures are obstacles to the freedom of navigation and fishing. The existence of 6,000 oil and other platforms in the Gulf of Mexico forced the introduction of 'Shipping Safety Fairways' which, sensible and practical though they may be, infringe the letter and spirit of the law of free and untrammelled passage of shipping on the high seas. More important is the fact that the establishment of artificial islands may be by individuals or corporate bodies outside the territorial limits of a neighbouring state and specifically designed to evade its laws. We have already seen this in European waters during the last few years with the appearance of 'pirate' radio and television stations circumventing the state monopoly of broadcasting in the adjacent countries. It is a short step from this to the setting up of an independent sovereign state, In Italy, an engineer, Signor Rosa, built an artificial island off the Adriatic resort of l~irr~"i and early in 1968 declared it a sovereign state. Mother case involved two rival companies wishing to construct artificial islands on reefs 8 km east of Elliot Key off the south-east coast 114
of Florida to be named "Atlantis, City of Gold' and 'Grand Capri Republic'. There is considerable financial advantage to the unscrupulous who manage to set up an independent business in this way. It proved difficult enough in la~ to deal with 'pirate' radio stations, which at the worst were creating a nuisance by cluttering up overcrowded broadcasting frequency bands. But such irresponsible unscrupulousness could easily extend to providing flags of convenience or havens for the industrial polluter who would thereby escape the more stringent controls gradually developing in the established states responsive to international pressures. Even in the more probable event of artificial islands being national rather than commercial enterprises, the likelihood of increased pollution is still there. Control of pollution by industrial complexes discharging wastes into inshore waters is lax enough: once a site becomes a major industrial centre it has little amenity value and generally little fishery potential, so that the motivation for clean seas is slight. Industrial complexes based on artificial islands far from shore would be even less in view and, as likely as not, even less urgency would be felt about controlling their pollution. On the other side of the coin, the governments of Britain, the Netherlands and other North Sea countries have had a scheme before them for more than two years, to construct an artificial island in the middle of the North Sea to treat industrial and domestic wastes from these countries instead of doing this on the mainland. Whether or not quite the same concern would be felt about the nature of the effluent from such a plant lying over the horizon as about one on the doorstep is another question. Looking ahead, it is not the prospect of a few more 'pirate' radio and television stations, the risk of increased pollution, or the cluttering up of the seas with man-made structures for the world's shipping to pick its way through, that worries international lawyers. It is what happens around these artificial islands. Are they entitled, as natural islands are, to a territorial sea, continental shelf and international seabed area ? If it is technically possible to construct an artificial island in water as deep as that at the edge of the continental shelf, or on submerged sea mounts beyond that, there may be very rich pickings indeed for the constructers of the islands. They may by this device be able to stake a mining claim to a great tract of ocean floor. A problem for international lawyers is that legal definitions have not yet caught up with technological developments. Many of the structures now appearing on or in the seas are neither ships nor islands. At present for legal purposes they are regarded as one or the other, but there is no clear definition in international law of what is a ship and what is an island. As Papadakis points out, it would be of considerable significance if artificial islands were to be assimilated to natural islands, since 'every island has its own territorial seas'. The UN Law of the Sea conference at Caracas is merely the opening round of a scramble for marine resources which is likely to go on for several decades. At present it is looking only at the static position of existing states; but clearly, if artificial islands are seriously promoted in the coming years, it may have to deal with a fluid and rapidly changing situation filled with a potential for trouble and strife.