The Characteristics of International Marine
Mammal Law
8
8.1
Introduction
The international legal landscape for marine mammals, which I have coined ‘international marine mammal law’, is wide and scattered. In the Introduction to this book
I have argued that the main body of international law that international marine
mammal law belongs to, is international environmental law as well as the law of
the sea. For the most part, this statement still holds true, but we have seen that also
other branches of (international) law comprise international marine mammal law.
From the early days of international, multilateral agreements relating to marine
mammals, these agreements were driven by the incentive to exploit them. From the
offset, it was seals which saw the first regulatory regimes. These regimes were not
global, but focused on specific regions or seal populations. The Jan Mayen Treaty of
1874 paved the way in this regard as it was the first treaty to link the interests of
different countries under one regulatory umbrella. While motivated by nations to
further advance their seal hunts at Jan Mayen, the treaty set an important precedent
for the future of marine mammal conservation and regulation for at least 100 years.
This is to say that it corresponded to the state of knowledge of that time and that the
ecosystem approach or other modern elements of environmental management did
not exist at that time.
8.2
Geographic Limitations
Instead of addressing the wider marine ecosystem, the Jan Mayen Treaty was limited
in its scope to one specific destination. These geographic limitations have become a
feature of many, if not most, regimes that constitute international marine mammal
law up to the point of writing. We must note, however, that these geographic
limitations apply mostly to those regimes that are directly concerned with the
management, or regulation, of marine mammals and marine mammal utilisation.
The Bering Sea Fur Sea Regime, for example, held clear provisions as to the
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Sellheim, International Marine Mammal Law,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35268-4_8
175
Mammal Law
8
8.1
Introduction
The international legal landscape for marine mammals, which I have coined ‘international marine mammal law’, is wide and scattered. In the Introduction to this book
I have argued that the main body of international law that international marine
mammal law belongs to, is international environmental law as well as the law of
the sea. For the most part, this statement still holds true, but we have seen that also
other branches of (international) law comprise international marine mammal law.
From the early days of international, multilateral agreements relating to marine
mammals, these agreements were driven by the incentive to exploit them. From the
offset, it was seals which saw the first regulatory regimes. These regimes were not
global, but focused on specific regions or seal populations. The Jan Mayen Treaty of
1874 paved the way in this regard as it was the first treaty to link the interests of
different countries under one regulatory umbrella. While motivated by nations to
further advance their seal hunts at Jan Mayen, the treaty set an important precedent
for the future of marine mammal conservation and regulation for at least 100 years.
This is to say that it corresponded to the state of knowledge of that time and that the
ecosystem approach or other modern elements of environmental management did
not exist at that time.
8.2
Geographic Limitations
Instead of addressing the wider marine ecosystem, the Jan Mayen Treaty was limited
in its scope to one specific destination. These geographic limitations have become a
feature of many, if not most, regimes that constitute international marine mammal
law up to the point of writing. We must note, however, that these geographic
limitations apply mostly to those regimes that are directly concerned with the
management, or regulation, of marine mammals and marine mammal utilisation.
The Bering Sea Fur Sea Regime, for example, held clear provisions as to the
# Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
N. Sellheim, International Marine Mammal Law,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35268-4_8
175