Its action is being brought under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the Ospar Convention on the Marine Environment.

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Minutes from an internal Ministry of Defence committee - released as part of a Freedom of Information request - note a discussion on the interpretation of the OSPAR convention on waste dumping.

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In an example of institutional inventiveness, six protected areas have been created in the North Atlantic by nations under the auspices of the Ospar convention which was created to govern issues like pollution and oil drilling, not fisheries.

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