Open AccessStates have come together throughout the past decades in an effort to legalise navigation and trade activity on the seas. The international community have taken account of the traditional behaviour of coastal states towards each other as well as past discussions on the subject. Recently there has been much discussion on the UNCLOS, and the efforts and effects of this major piece of legislation on member and non-member states. Increase in global population and the advancement of technology in fisheries as well as increasing pollution of the seas have resulted in grave depletion of marine resources. State subsidies to the fishing sector have trade and ecological consequences, especially for fisheries that are over-exploited. Growing interest in this biological problem has sparked the need to establish principles which would rationalise exploitation of live aquatic wealth.