RECOGNIZES the importance of our oceans and the vast potential scientific knowledge contained within these bodies;
OBSERVES that a vast majority of the ocean floor has remained unmapped and uncharted;
NOTES that whilst some efforts are underway to map the ocean floor, a united international effort is not present, which prevents the free sharing of knowledge and data;
ACKNOWLEDGES every Member State’s right to sovereignty and the established right to claim their seabed up to and including twenty-four nautical miles offshore;
RECOGNIZES the wisdom of GAR #168, governing the conduct and privileges of Member States as it relates to their oceanic and/or other aquatic claims;
DECLARES ACCORDINGLY:
- 1. The World Assembly Oceanic Surveying Authority (WAOSA) be tasked with the express goal of surveying the seabed and geological features below sea-level as part of an international cooperative effort to further scientific understanding and knowledge of the seabed
- 2. The WAOSA is instructed to survey all international and ungoverned waters and to survey the national waters of member states subject to authorization by the member state's relevant marine authority.
- a. Surveying may be conducted using: lead lines, sounding poles, single-beam echo-sounders, multibeam swath systems, side-scan sonar systems, and lidar (light detection and ranging)
- b. Equipment may be installed on inflatable craft, small vessels, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs) and/or large ships
- c. The WAOSA may survey international and ungoverned waters without restriction
- 3. All Member States are allowed the ability to request WAOSA personnel and vessels not conduct surveying and data collecting within their territorial waters
- a. Member States may make this appeal to WAOSA personnel and vessels at any time regardless of any prior consent given
- b. Upon the reception of a request, the WAOSA will send the case to an internal panel to consider the concerns of the party making the plea
- i. During the period in which the request is pending or is otherwise being processed, WAOSA vessels will promptly vacate the territorial waters of the party making the appeal
- 4. All data collected by WAOSA on a specific Member State’s seabed will be firstly shared with the nation from which the data originates
- a. The relevant Member State is guaranteed the unrestricted right to withhold and/or request the data not be disseminated in any form
- i. Member States are banned from altering and/or falsifying any data pertaining to their seabed
- ii. The WAOSA is mandated not to comply with any request from a Member State to falsify and/or dishonestly report geological data
- 5. The participating Member States are mandated to provide any and all relevant and declassified maps, charts and existing geological data pertaining to their respective area of the seabed in order to allow surveying to be undertaken in the most efficient manner
ADDS THE FOLLOWING EXCEPTIONS:
- 1. Military vessels or fleets may, for the express purpose of national security, request that a WAOSA vessel does not survey a specific area of ocean floor surrounding the military vessel or fleet up to two nautical miles in diameter from the vessel(s), even in international waters
- 2. WAOSA vessels are permitted to, in a time of dire peril, seek harbor in a nation which has not given consent to allow WAOSA personnel to enter
- a. No surveying and/or geological research will be completed in this scenario
FORMS the World Assembly Oceanic Surveying Authority (WAOSA) to preside over and conduct surveying operations on the seabed as well as to collect and collate data relating to the surveying of the seabed.
