Scarborough Shoal: a Philippine Territory
I. INTRODUCTION
The Scarborough Shoal and It’s Location
Scarborough Shoal or Scarborough Reef, also known as Huangyan Island or Panatag Shoal is located between the Macclesfield Bank and Luzon Island of the Philippines in the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea. It is a group of rocks or very small islands plus reefs in an atoll shape. The was named after the East India Company tea-trade ship Scarborough which was wrecked on one of its rocks on 12 September 1784 with all lives lost. Scarborough Shoal/Panatag forms a triangle-shaped chain of reefs and rocks or very small islands 55 kilometers (34 mi) in circumference with a total area including shallow water areas of 150 square kilometres. The shoal encompasses a shallow lagoon measuring 130 km2 and approximately 15 meters (49 ft) deep. The shoal is a protrusion from a 3,500 m deep abyssal plain. Several of the rocks or small islands including “South Rock” are ½ m to 3 m high, and many of the reefs are just below water at high tide. To the east of the shoal is the 5,000-6,000 meter deep Manila Trench. Near the mouth of the lagoon are the ruins of an iron tower, 8.3 m high, that was constructed by the Philippine Navy as a lighthouse in 1965. The shoal is about 123 miles (198 km) west of Subic Bay. The nearest landmass is Palauig, Zambales, on Luzon Island in the Philippines, 137 miles (220 km) due east. Scarborough Shoal is the largest Atoll in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), it was largely unheard of before the implementation of the United Nations on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1994. The shoal is inside the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines but is claimed by China as its ancestral territory since the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). This conflict, recurrent year after year during the fishing season, worsened from April upto this time.
See figure attached.
The Activities on the Shoal
Scarborough Shoal sits in the middle of a region rich in minerals, oil and gas. The shoal and
The Scarborough Shoal and It’s Location
Scarborough Shoal or Scarborough Reef, also known as Huangyan Island or Panatag Shoal is located between the Macclesfield Bank and Luzon Island of the Philippines in the South China Sea or West Philippine Sea. It is a group of rocks or very small islands plus reefs in an atoll shape. The was named after the East India Company tea-trade ship Scarborough which was wrecked on one of its rocks on 12 September 1784 with all lives lost. Scarborough Shoal/Panatag forms a triangle-shaped chain of reefs and rocks or very small islands 55 kilometers (34 mi) in circumference with a total area including shallow water areas of 150 square kilometres. The shoal encompasses a shallow lagoon measuring 130 km2 and approximately 15 meters (49 ft) deep. The shoal is a protrusion from a 3,500 m deep abyssal plain. Several of the rocks or small islands including “South Rock” are ½ m to 3 m high, and many of the reefs are just below water at high tide. To the east of the shoal is the 5,000-6,000 meter deep Manila Trench. Near the mouth of the lagoon are the ruins of an iron tower, 8.3 m high, that was constructed by the Philippine Navy as a lighthouse in 1965. The shoal is about 123 miles (198 km) west of Subic Bay. The nearest landmass is Palauig, Zambales, on Luzon Island in the Philippines, 137 miles (220 km) due east. Scarborough Shoal is the largest Atoll in the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea), it was largely unheard of before the implementation of the United Nations on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) in 1994. The shoal is inside the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the Philippines but is claimed by China as its ancestral territory since the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368). This conflict, recurrent year after year during the fishing season, worsened from April upto this time.
See figure attached.
The Activities on the Shoal
Scarborough Shoal sits in the middle of a region rich in minerals, oil and gas. The shoal and