Resolution MEPC.98(47)

IDENTIFICATION OF THE SEA AREA AROUND THE FLORIDA KEYS AS A PARTICULARLY SENSITIVE SEA AREA

(adopted on 8 March 2002)

THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT PROTECTION COMMITTEE,

BEING AWARE of the ecological, social, economic, cultural, scientific and educational value of the sea areas around the Florida Keys, as well as the international shipping traffic and activities in the area,

NOTING that article 211(6) of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is further evidence of the will of States to co-operate in defining vulnerable marine areas requiring a higher level of protection than that which generally applies,

NOTING FURTHER that the Guidelines for Identification and Designation of Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas adopted under resolution A.927(22) set out procedures for designation of particularly sensitive sea areas and for adoption of measures to be applied in such areas,

RECOGNIZING that the Sub-Committee on Navigation, at its forty-seventh session, agreed with several associated routeing measures for the waters around the Florida Keys for approval by the Maritime Safety Committee at its seventy-fifth session,

RECOGNIZING ALSO the intention of Member Governments to co-operate with me coastal State to determine measures to be applied in the proposed sea area as soon as possible,

HAVING CONSIDERED the proposal from the United States to designate the sea area around me Florida Keys as a particularly sensitive sea area,

HAVING AGREED that criteria for identification of a particularly sensitive sea area provided in resolution A.927(22) are fulfilled for the sea area around the Florida Keys,

IDENTIFIES the sea area around the Florida Keys as defined in the Annex to this resolution as a particularly sensitive sea area.

Annex.