Dear Colleagues,

This message serves as something of a reintroduction to the list and a
followup to Victor's query on straight baselines.

Some of you may recall me from my time with IBRU. After a mere 11 years I
have now moved on, so greetings to you all from the depths of Sydney's
"winter"! I am now a Research Fellow with the School for Surveying and
Spatial Information at the University of New South Wales where my research
is focussed on straight baselines...

I believe that I have three examples to add to Martin's suggestion of
Cyprus (I wonder if one of our friends at the UKHO could answer the
question about a UK protest over the enclosure of the SBAs with straight
baslines?).

1. Croatia/Bosnia - Yugoslavia established straight baselines along much of
its Adriatic coastline in 1965. These, along with the coastline concerned,
were largely inherited by Croatia which has reconfirmed them in its own
maritime legislation. No problem so long as Yugoslavia was a single, albeit
federal, state. With the breakup of Yugoslavia, however, there now exists
the situation where Bosnia's narrow corridor to the Adriatic and short
coastline lies landward of Croatia's reconfirmed straight baselines. In
1999 Bosnia and Croatia delimitated their short maritime boundary as part
of their overall land boundary agreement. This consists of a median line
between Bosnia's portion of the Klek peninsula and Croatia's Peljesac
peninsula which lies between the Bosnian coastline and the Adriatic. Thus,
Bosnia's pocket of territorial sea is surrounded by what Croatia claims as
internal waters which I think is a unique situation. (Correct me if I'm
wrong).

2. Cuba - In a similar manner to Cyprus, Cuba has constructed straight
baselines which enclose the entire island of Cuba and associated islets -
including the US base at Guantanamo Bay. I suspect that this doesn't quite
fall into Victor's category of straight baselines being used ot cut-off
states from the EEZ/high seas as Guantanamo is leased by the US rather than
owned. The UK, in contrast, has sovereignty over its bases on Cyprus. There
may well be security implications, however, though I doubt the Cubans try
to enforce jurisdiction directly offshore the US base! I'm unaware wheather
the terms of the US lease provide for US control over offshore space.

3. Venezuela - In 1968 venezuela defined a single straight baseline (rather
than a river or bay closing line) across the mouth of the Orinoco River
...and then some. The straight baseline is almost 100 nautical miles long.
The eastern terminus of the line lies considerably beyond what might be
defined as the natural entrance to the Orinoco estuary and, significantly,
26 nautical miles east of the terminus of the Venezuela-Guyana land
boundary on the coast. The baseline therefore cuts off a portion of the
Guyanan coast from the EEZ/High seas. This baseline claim is consistent
with Venezuela's territorial dispute with Guyana whereby Venezuela claims
the territory west of the Essequibo river - roughly two-thirds of the land
territory of Guyana.

Best wishes,

Clive