The Fisheries Issues in the Aegean Sea

Abstract

The Aegean Sea is one of the few seas world-wide where the fishery issue has not yet been raised in so far as boundary delimitation is concerned.¹ The reasons are several and obvious, and have been discussed in the doctrine and in the literature for years. Because sovereignty, national security, and the economic impact of oil drilling are so deeply interrelated and connected in the Aegean Sea, it is difficult to deal with other less-politicized issues without being already on the verge of war. The exploitation of non-living resources tends to be more fiercely contested than that of living resources. Still, the problem of exploitation of the living resources does exist and may soon become of prime importance in the relationship between Greece and Turkey.