In order to maximize their jurisdiction offshore, coastal states are inclined to a broad and inclusive definition of marine scientific research. States

have debated, for example, whether collection of routine meteorological and oceanographic observations AZD6738 nmr by voluntary observing ships, floats, and gliders, and activities such as marine surveys and bio-prospecting, constitute MSR [23] In a response to an inquiry by the World Meteorological Organization on whether routine marine observations and data collected for sea state estimation, weather forecasts, and climate modeling constitute “marine scientific research,” the chairman of the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea responded that they lie outside the regime of MSR.21 The United States has relied in part on this opinion to express the same view.22 The use of marine migratory species as oceanographic platforms adds to this milieu of discord and debate over the role of the coastal state in the MSR regime. Marine animals can be tagged anywhere in the world, and later through natural movement and migration, they may end up in areas under coastal state jurisdiction. The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission has issued guidance on the use of floating buoys or SB431542 gliders inside a

coastal state׳s EEZ as part of a program pursuant to an international marine science effort. The guidance permits states to require notification in certain circumstances. A state must be notified if the

deployed device “might” enter the EEZ of a participating state that has so requested notification “reasonably in advance of the expected entry of the float in the EEZ.”23 This guidance, however, does not control the use of marine animals as platforms to collect marine data; bio-logging is not analogous. The difference between the two is that marine species follow unpredictable courses driven by decisions made by the animals themselves, whereas drifting buoys and floating instruments are driven by predictable wind and currents, and their intended trajectories are often modeled ahead of deployments as part of the studies they second support. Furthermore, deployed floats, gliders and drifters are also recoverable, whereas tags deployed on animals are not. Bio-logging is further differentiated from other marine data collection activities because the course, track, and behavior of specific tagged animals are largely unpredictable and, essentially unknowable, when instruments are deployed. This is especially true for archival tags deployed on marine animals that do not provide information about the movements of animals until they are recovered or are jettisoned from the animal.