Boundary negotiations 
22 
Hydrographische Nachrichten 
Fig. 4: The Ministers of 
Foreign Affairs of the Federa 
Republic of Germany, Frank- 
Walter Stelnmeler (right), 
and of the Netherlands, 
Bert Koenders 
Result 
»Vertrag zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 
und dem Königreich der Niederlande über die Nut 
zung und Verwaltung des Küstenmeeres zwischen 3 
und 12 Seemeilen« 
»Verdrag tussen de Bondsrepublik Duitsland en het 
KoninkrijkderNederlanden betreffendehetgebruiken 
beheervan de territoriaiezee van 3 tot I2zeemijlen« 
The treaty »on the use and administration of the 
territorial sea between 3 and 12 nautical miles« 
fixes the substantial and for practice particularly 
Important aspects: 
• The construction of the wind farm »Riffgat« Is 
being based on an assured basis of interna 
tional law; 
• The delimitation of responsibilities for ma 
rine cables, pipelines, wind farms, rights for 
exploitation and uses is being done along 
the line of the German-Dutch treaty of the 
continental shelf from 1964; 
• The access to the high sea from the harbours 
of Emden, Delfzijl and Eemshaven remains 
without hindrance; 
• The whole marine traffic management in 
that area will be concentrated In one joint 
vessel traffic service centre. 
Although stated in the media repeatedly, this trea 
ty is not an agreement about the boundary in the 
Ems-Dollart estuary. It explicitly does not include a 
border between the two countries, but it provides 
legal certainty on both sides with a pragmatic so 
lution. This is Important for further Investments 
and the administration of the Ems-Dollart estuary, 
which becomes more and more important due to 
the growing Importance of the coastal seas eco 
nomically and ecologically. 
Role of hydrography 
The international law, especially the Law of Sea, 
is not only a legal issue where lawyers and poli 
ticians are engaged in. The example described 
above shows many tasks that are closely related 
to hydrography. One prereguisite is of course the 
provision of a topography of the sea-floor and 
the wadden sea. Decisions have to be based as 
well on up-to-date and guality assured informa 
tion of the coastline, the 0 m contour line and the 
talweg. Description of estuaries and their limits 
have to be based on scientific research. Calcula 
tions have to be accomplished regarding coordi 
nates and transformations, eguldlstance lines and 
other delimitations. And all these calculations 
and results have to be presented In digital and 
analogue cartographic products and in presenta 
tions which are understandable for non-hydrog- 
raphers. 
The hydrographers probably still can do more 
to make their contributions in all marine fields and 
aspects known to the public and to other profes 
sions. They should be more self-confident and 
more visible, i 
Hydrographische Nachrichten 
HN 100 - February 2015 
Fachzeitschrift für Flydrographie 
und Geoinformation 
Officia journal of the 
German Hydrographie Society - DHyG 
Publisher: 
Deutsche Hydrographische Gesellschaft e. V. 
c/o Sabine Müller 
nnomar Technologie GmbH 
Schutower Ringstraße4 
18069 Rostock 
nternet: www.dhyg.de 
E-mail: dhyg@innomar.com 
Rhone: (0381)44079-0 
ISSN: 1866-9204 
Editor-in-chief: 
Lars Schiller 
E-mail: lars.schiller@dhyg.de 
Editorial team: 
Hartmut Pietrek, Dipl.-Ing. 
Prof. Marketa Pokorna, Ph.D. 
Stefan Steinmetz, Dipl.-Ing. 
Scientific advisory board: 
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Delf Egge 
Horst Hecht, Dipl.-Met. 
Proofreading and translation: 
Verena Eisemann, Staatl. gepr. Übersetzerin 
The journal is published three times a year, in Febru 
ary, June and October. For DHyG members the sub 
scription is covered by the membership fee. 
©2015 
Advertisements: 
Full page (210 mm x 297 mm): 300 Euro; 
on the inside cover: 400 Euro; 
on the outside cover: 600 Euro. 
Half page (210 mm x 148 mm): 200 Euro. 
Contact: Stefan Steinmetz, e-mail: sts@eiva.com 
Flints for contributions: 
The submitted paper must not have been pub 
lished in this form yet. Please submit your text un 
formatted and without images in the text file. The 
attached images should have a resolution of at 
east 300 dpi. The automatic hyphenation must be 
switched off in the text file; also manual hyphena 
tion is not allowed. 
The editorial team decides about the acceptance 
of the paper and the time of publication. The au 
thors agree with copy-editing without distorting 
the meaning. 
Articles marked with full names may not be repre 
sentative for the opinion of the editorial team.