Hawai'i Fisheries Initiative - The Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs

transit) by foreign ships through a nation’s
territorial sea. Beyond the territorial sea
were the high seas, virtually a free-for-all of
international activity. 348
In 1945, on the heels of World War II and
the resulting awareness that a nation’s
oil and gas reserves were a significant
source of wealth and power, President
Truman issued a proclamation that claimed
U.S. control and jurisdiction over the
resources of the continental shelves off
the U.S. coast (the target being the oil-rich
seabeds). At the time, this was likely an
illegal act, as the U.S. was asserting its
authority well beyond the previously
established customary 3 nm territorial
seas limit. However, other nations quickly
followed suit, and within 10 years, there
was widespread general acceptance and
approval – mainly through other nations
claiming sovereign rights to their own
continental shelves. 349 The Truman Proclamation,
also known as the Continental
Shelf Doctrine, thus became an accepted
international custom that recognized coastal
nations’ sovereign rights in the natural
resources of the seabed and subsoil of the
continental shelves. 350
Facing the Japanese return to offshore
whaling grounds following World War II,
Chile, Ecuador, and Peru became the first
nations to extend their claims out to 200
nautical miles from shore, although this
was not greeted with the same level of
acceptance as the Truman Proclamation,
generally because of the limiting effects on
the fishing fleets and navies of powerful
seafaring nations like the United States. 351
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