THE ECONOMY OF THE SEA. MARINE RESOURCES OF EXTENDED CONTINENTAL SHELF

Abstract

There is a visible Argentina and another hidden under the sea. The latter is the natural extension of the mailand and has an enourmous potential in terms of resources. Thanks to the scientific, technical and legal work carried out during the last 20 years, we have a better picture of this hidden Argentina, allowing a new delimitation of the Continental Platform. Argentina presented a proposal to enforce these new limits to the Commission for the Limits of the Continental Shelf in 2009, and was studied since 2012 by a group of experts that analyzed the opinions of geologists, hydrologists and diplomats from Argentina on a seemingly unimportant issue: what is the size of underwater platform? This work was accumulated on severals documents, maps and other testimonies for several years, until Argentina was able to expand its continental platform from 200 miles to 350 miles, expanding the original surface by 35%. The Argentine continental shelf has now a surface area of more than 6,500,000 km2, almost twice as large as its mainland surface. This valuable expansion, not only reaffirms our rights over minerals, hydrocarbons and fishes, but it also has strategic implications related to The Malvinas, The South Atlantic Islands and The Antarctica. This work addresses the details of this exhaustive investigation, as well as the related economic impacts