Question

although tokelau is small, its decision to bar whaling in the territory it controls could have a huge impact. tokelau, home to approximately 1,500 people, is an isolated group of coral atolls that lies about 300 miles (about 482 kilometers) north of the island of samoa and roughly halfway between hawaii and new zealand. the territory is both a u.n. protectorate and a colony of new zealand. together, the three atolls encompass just five square miles (about 13.0 square kilometers) of land, but thanks to an international agreement called the law of the sea treaty (lost), tokelau possesses an exclusive economic zone (eez) that stretches across 116,000 square miles (about 300,438 square kilometers) of ocean waters. under lost, a country has the right to supervise and use natural resources on and under the sea floor of its eez. these zones extend 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from a countrys shoreline. tokelau has now outlawed whale hunting across its entire eez. the designation of tokelaus eez as a whale sanctuary makes the territory the 11th such protected zone in the pacific ocean and adds a huge patch of sea to the marine area that is already off limits to whaling. together, these protected areas encompass some 7.2 million square miles (18.7 million square kilometers). other pacific nations and territories that have established whale sanctuaries within their eezs are australia, the cook islands, fiji, french polynesia, new

Explanation:

An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is an area of the sea where a country has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources. According to the Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST), Tokelau has an EEZ that stretches across 116,000 square miles of ocean waters. Tokelau is using its EEZ rights to protect whales by outlawing whale hunting across its entire EEZ. This decision makes Tokelau's EEZ a whale sanctuary, which is important for whale conservation as it adds a large area to the marine regions already off - limits to whaling. The fact that Tokelau, despite being a small territory (with only about 1,500 people and a land area of just five square miles), can have a significant impact through its EEZ rights shows the power of international agreements like LOST in environmental protection.

Answer:

An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is an area of ocean waters (extending 200 nautical miles from a country's shoreline) where a country has rights over natural resources. Tokelau uses its EEZ (granted by LOST) to protect whales by outlawing whale hunting across it. This helps in whale conservation as it enlarges the protected marine area for whales.