Sir, Whaling (leading article, June 17) is only one of the unsettled problems of the world’s oceans. The basic problem is the idea of “the high seas”.
Throughout history, common land and open seas have been open to those who can most quickly exploit them and it is the enclosures of farming land that has made sustainable agriculture possible. We should do the same for the oceans.
It would not be difficult to divide all of the oceans beyond their contintental shelves, into the equivalent of fields, and to use modern methods, GPS, for one, to define their boundaries. Then all the nations that have a coastline would draw lots so that every patch of the oceans would have a definite owner. It would be understood that the owner could exploit their own patch, but nobody else’s, and that if they chose to ruin it, they would never get another patch. This would apply not only to fish but also to minerals on or below the sea bed. Coastal waters would need to become exclusive, too.
Policing the sea boundaries would then become a job for professional navies. The right of passage across a nation’s water would remain, but monitoring pollution would now have a sound basis. No doubt there would be some trading of patches between nations, but the long-term interest in this asset would be clear, and would be defended.
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J. M. H. WRIGHT
Sale, Cheshire
Sir, Given their relative performance in sustainable exploitation of marine fish stocks, I find it laughable for the UK and other European countries to lecture Norway and Iceland on sustainable whale catching.
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ALLAN DUNCAN
Abingdon, Oxon
Sir, I believe that the Japanese Government has yet to demonstrate its position concerning the scientific need for whaling?
Surely the burden of proof lies on those who make an assertion? I assert that a living sentient species is dying under the bows of Japanese trawlers — it is not the whales that are a threat to the ecosystem but the Japanese, surely?
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R. J. BARRETT
Towcester, Northants
Sir, The Japanese Government seems to think it is a very good time to restart its pro-whaling campaign. I think now would be a very good time to stop buying Japanese products.
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CURTIS SCHWARTZ
London W1