Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

has the 5th largest

exclusive economic zone An exclusive economic zone (EEZ), as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine natural resource, reso ...

(EEZ) within Europe, 3rd largest of the EU and the 20th largest EEZ in the world, at 1,727,408 km².Seaaroundus.org

Portugal's exclusive economic zone

Continental Portugal Continental Portugal (, ) or mainland Portugal comprises the bulk of the Portuguese Republic, namely that part on the Iberian Peninsula and so in continental Europe, having approximately 95% of the total population and 96.6% of the country's l ...

327,667 km² *

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

Islands 446,108 km² *

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

Islands 953,633 km² * Total: 1,727,408 km² Portugal submitted a claim to extend its

jurisdiction Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' and 'speech' or 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United States, the concept of jurisdiction applies at multiple level ...

over additional 2.15 million square kilometers of the neighboring continental shelf in May 2009, which would result in a marine territory of more than 3,877,408 km².

Resolved Dispute with Spain

Until 2015, Spain disputed the EEZ's southern border, maintaining that it should be drawn halfway between

and the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

. Portugal exercises sovereignty over the

Savage Islands The Savage Islands or Selvagens Islands ( ; also known as the Salvage Islands) are a small Portugal, Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, south of Madeira and north of the Canary Islands.30,000), white-faced storm-petrel (>80,0 ...

, a small

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands. An archipelago may be in an ocean, a sea, or a smaller body of water. Example archipelagos include the Aegean Islands (the o ...

north of the Canaries, hence claiming an EEZ border further south. Spain had objected by arguing that the Savage Islands do not have a separate

continental shelf A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an islan ...

, citing article 121 of the

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international treaty that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. , 169 sov ...

. On the basis of this article, Spain claimed that the Savage Islands were not islands, but instead uninhabitable

rocks In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks form the Earth's ...

. The Savage Islands are a protected Portuguese

natural reserve A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geologi ...

, and thus its only year-round inhabitants are workers of

Madeira Natural Park The Madeira Natural Park () is a large biological reserve in Madeira with a unique endemic flora and fauna. It was created in 1982 to safeguard the natural heritage of the archipelago, and contains a number of endangered species including globa ...

who look over the isolated natural reserve, protecting its wildlife. Over the years, the Portuguese authorities have seized some Spanish

fishing boats A fishing vessel is a boat or ship used to fishing, catch fish and other valuable nektonic aquatic animals (e.g. shrimps/prawns, krills, coleoids, etc.) in the sea, lake or river. Humans have used different kinds of surface vessels in commercial ...

around the area for

illegal fishing Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) is an issue around the world. Fishing industry observers believe IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries. Illegal fishing takes pl ...

.Carvalho, Luis and Leitão, Nuno, ''A Noção "Estratégica" das Ilhas Selvagens'' (in Portuguese)

References

External links

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – Part V

Sea Around Us Project – View the EEZ of all nations
(Note that this site does not distinguish between

territorial waters Territorial waters are informally an area of water where a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potentially the extended continental shelf ( ...

and the EEZ, and so tends to overstate EEZ areas.)
Task Group for the extension of the Continental Shelf
map *

GIS A geographic information system (GIS) consists of integrated computer hardware and software that store, manage, analyze, edit, output, and visualize geographic data. Much of this often happens within a spatial database; however, this is not ...

data at

VLIZ Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase The Flanders Marine Institute (Dutch: Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee, VLIZ) is a scientific institution dedicated to marine research. Established in 1999 and headquartered in Ostend, Flanders, VLIZ gathers and disseminates ocean knowledge, promote ...

{{Portugal topics Economy of Portugal

Borders of Portugal Fishing in Portugal

Portugal's exclusive economic zone

Resolved Dispute with Spain

See also

References

External links