Somalia has by far the richest and the longest coastline of any country in Africa at roughly 3,333 km (1,200 km along the Gulf of Berbera/Aden and 2,133 km along the Indian Ocean).
According to The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) The exclusive economic zone of Somalia covers 1,477,500 million square kilometers, Including the limit of its outer continental shelf beyond 200M, from which the breadth of the nation’s territorial waters is measured. In accordance with Law No. 37 passed in 1972, Somalia’s EEZ falls under its territorial sovereignty.
On 9 February 1989, the Somali parliament ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The treaty defines the rights and responsibilities of nations with respect to their use of the world’s oceans, and establishes guidelines for businesses, the environment, and the management of marine Natural resources.
In 2014 Somalia submitted to the Commission its claim to extend its coastal EEZ from 200 nautical miles to 350 nautical miles.
(Southern Somalia.)
The Somali maritime space, which wraps around the Horn of Africa from the Gulf of Berbera/Aden to the Western Indian Ocean, is immense. The coastline stretches from Djibouti to Kenya and the maritime territory claimed in the corresponding exclusive economic zone covers 1,477,500 million square kilometers, including the limit of its outer continental shelf beyond 200M, To put it in perspective, this maritime space is larger than the maritime spaces claimed by Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Cameroon, Egypt, Tanzania and Kenya combined. Nowhere else in the world does such a poor and politically fractured government take responsibility for such a vast maritime area.
In the north, Somali waters encompass approximately half the Gulf of Berbera/Aden, stretching some 1,200 km from the western border with Djibouti across Somaliland and Puntland toward the island of Socotra. This highly trafficked region is transited by nearly all of the global commerce between the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea. Shipping traffic is heavily concentrated in the west as ships approach the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, but disperses closer to the Arabian Sea in the east. The geopolitical importance of this maritime region is evinced by the presence of French, American, Japanese, and Chinese bases and German, Italian, and Spanish logistic support facilities in nearby Djibouti. Most shipping traffic passes through this region without stopping in northern Somali ports, but most Somali commerce occurs in the northern port cities of Bosasso and Berbera.
The southern portion of the Somali maritime space extends for more than 2,133 km along the northeastern coast of the African continent. This stretch spans the waters off Puntland south toward Jubaland before ending near the border with Kenya. It includes the vital port cities of Mogadishu and Kismayo, but also hundreds of miles of remote, sparsely populated, and poorly governed coastline. International shipping traffic is less concentrated there than it is in the Gulf of Berbera/Aden, but enough ships transit the area to support illicit activities like Illegal, unregulated, and unreported foreign fishing.
Sandy beaches form a large part of the coastal environment of Somalia and are particularly important to the sea turtle populations, The coast of Somalia is one of the more important turtle nesting grounds on a global scale.
(People enjoying the ocean breeze..)
(Walk along the Somali ocean shore.)
(Northeastern Somalia.)
Opportunities
Somali waters which are home to more than half of all marine species of the entire Indian ocean, have the potential to be as lucrative as they are vast. Somali maritime claims contain rich fisheries that attract fishing fleets from all over the world. With better fisheries management and more sustainable practices, this area could be a vital source of revenue and food security for the foreseeable future. If Somali authorities can bolster the legitimate fishing economy and end illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing by foreign fleets, the industry could greatly improve coastal livelihoods and potentially offer coastal residents some relief from food shortages.
Future Chinese invasion of Somalia, Mozambique and Madagascar.
According to a paper published in the Chinese-language Bulletin of Mineralogy, Petrology and Geochemistry in February 2021, Chinese researchers say they have identified a number of “strategically important” deep sea mineral deposits as part of a decade-long survey of the world’s sea floors. The researchers conducted a series of government-funded surveys from 2011 to 2020, and located potentially high-yield deposits of various essential industrial minerals from nickel to rare earths, A few of the deposits were in the South China Sea, but most were in the northwestern and southwestern Indian Ocean.
According to the researchers, China’s future deep sea mining activities would likely be focused in the northwestern and southwestern Indian Ocean. In these areas, Chinese research vessels have discovered a large number of previously unknown “chimneys” pumping mineral-rich material to the sea floor from the depths of the Earth. Some deposits contained ores of high enough quality for commercial exploitation. For example, the survey found reserves of nickel – a metal that could boost the performance of electric car batteries – tended to be found on the sides undersea mountains rather than on the peaks or in basins.
The Northwestern Indian Ocean = Somali Sea.
The Southwestern Indian Ocean = Mozambique and Madagascar Sea.
Old video. 2017