New Zealand ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1996. In order to define the extent of its continental shelf as described in article 76 of that convention, New Zealand has undertaken the Continental Shelf Project, a multi-phase, multi-disciplinary project to identify submarine areas that are the prolongation of the New Zealand land mass.

These web documents discuss technical issues related to the application of UNCLOS article 76 that have arisen during the course of the Continental Shelf Project, and some of the practical aspects of managing the project. Discussion of the documents is encouraged, and comments can be viewed on each page.

These documents present the New Zealand Continental Shelf Project team’s current understanding of the nature of the New Zealand continental margin in terms of the principles and interpretation of article 76. The opinions are solely those of the technical members of the project team and do not represent the official policy of the New Zealand government.