As with other countries, New Zealand's 200 nautical miles exclusive economic zone gives its fishing industry special fishing rights.[1] It covers 4.1 million square kilometres. This is the sixth largest zone in the world, and is fourteen times the land area of New Zealand.[2][3]
The New Zealand zone has a rich and unusually complex underwater topography. Over 15,000 marine species are known to live there, about ten percent of the world's diversity. Many of these are migratory species, but New Zealand's isolation means also that many of the marine species are unique to New Zealand.[4]
- ^ *United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - Part V
- ^ New Zealand’s marine area Archived 2013-02-19 at the Wayback Machine Ministry for the Environment.
- ^ Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2007) Environmental Performance Review:New Zealand p. 207.
- ^ Fisheries and their ecosystems. NZ Ministry of Fisheries. Retrieved 13 June 2008.