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Soviet fishing is done off the shores of other countries. In fact, one 
of the reasons why the Western maritime powers are interested in 
the 200-mile EEZ is exactly to restrict Soviet fishing. The final deci- 
sion (and it must have been a tough one) to accept 200-mile exclusive 
economic zones must have been strongly influenced by the desire 
to protect Soviet naval operations through international straits and 
beyond 12-mile territorial limits. 
THE CONTINENTAL SHELF 
From the beginning of the debate before the Ad Hoc Seabed Com- 
mittee the Soviet Union has sought to define “more closely” the 
limits of national jurisdiction over the Continental Shelf.'* In 1973, 
the U.S.S.R. proposed Continental Shelf limits of 500 meters or to 
100 nautical miles from the coast, whichever was greater.'® At 
Caracas, however, the Soviet delegation expressed its willingness to 
extend those limits to 500 meters or 200 nautical miles from the 
coast whichever was greater.'’ The importance of this issue for the 
Soviet Union seems to have become considerably less as the possibility 
of EEZ’s and an international oceanic authority have become greater. 
AN INTERNATIONAL OCEANIC AUTHORITY 
It was the dream of Pardo and other idealists to create an influential 
seabed organization with its own territory-and income. As the law 
of the sea debate has developed this dream has seemed increasingly 
impossible, but the Soviet Union was never one with the idealists. 
From 1967 to 1970, the Soviet Union continually supported inter- 
governmental cooperation through UNESCO’s_ Intergovernmental 
Oceanic Commission as the proper alternative to a new oceanic 
authority.'8 Not only was the IOC a weak international organization 
not undermining state authority (the Soviet preference), but during 
those years its director was a Russian. But the Soviet Union was 
dismally alone in promoting the IOC and by 1971, faced with no 
enthusiasm for its proposals and with Third World pressure for a 
seabed authority, the U.S.S.R. began to deal more seriously with the 
ocean authority question. 
Between 1971 and 1973 the Soviet Union proposed that the seabed 
authority only coordinate the activities of nations in exploiting the 
ocean floor.!? The organization itself would do no mining and the 
decisions of the authority would be taken by consensus, that is, with 
the possibility of a Soviet veto.2° These proposals fit in with the 
Soviet reluctance to accept the very notion of ‘‘the common heritage 
of mankind,” which the U.S.S.R. feared would become the preserve 
of the West’s capitalistic corporations. 
By 1973 the Soviet Union had moved to a willingness to have 
mining done both by the authority itself and by individual states.” 
15 A/AC.135/SR.11, at 3 (1968). 
16 A/AC.138/SC.II/L.26 (1973). 
7 A/CONF. 62/C.2/SR.20, at 3 (1974). 
18 A/AC.135/SR.3, at 14 (1968); A/AC.138/SR.6, at 55 (1969); A/AC.138/SCII/SR.36, at 28-29 
1970). j 
19 A/AC.138/SR.56, at 153 (1971). 
20 A/AC.138/SCI/SR.43, at 149 (1972). 
21 A/AC.138/SCI/SR.68, at 76 (1973). 
69-315 O - 76 -- 20 
