59. Considers that prospection and mining on the continental shelf require uninterrupted State involvement, especially as regards information, the identification of areas off limits from mining, environmental impact assessment, analysing and minimising risks, and the exercise of sovereignty; calls on the Commission to propose and update a non-exhaustive list of maritime activities (e.g. offshore energy production, deep-sea mining, sand and gravel exploitation at sea, etc.) requiring prior environmental and socio-economic impact assessments; calls for attention to be paid to the reuse and recycl ...[+++]ing of minerals as an alternative option to deep sea mining and the potential offered by these activities for embedding scientific knowledge and development and technology transfer;

Furthermore, in view of the migratory nature of deep-sea sharks and their wide distribution throughout the North East Atlantic, STECF has recommended that management measures for these species be extended to Union waters of Committee for Eastern and Central Atlantic Fisheries (CECAF) around Madeira.

'Union waters' means the waters and the seabeds under the sovereignty or jurisdiction of the Member States with the exception of the waters those adjacent to the territories listed in Annex II to the Treaty; [Am. 63]

A key element is whether the cumulative effect of so many large scale urbanisation schemes lacking a positive water report from the responsible authority would render the application of the Water Framework Directive impossible by denying water for human consumption and for agriculture.

Lastly, the 'exclusive economic zone' is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, within which the coastal State has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring and exploiting, conserving and managing the natural resources, whether living or non-living, of the waters superjacent to the seabed and of the seabed and its subsoil.

In fact, as has already been stated, this is an extremely sensitive situation, with a very complex ecological balance, and enormous care must be taken in granting access to these waters, since fish are concentrated in a tiny part of these waters, in the furthest reaches of the sea.