On 19 May 2006, France, Ireland, Spain and the United Kingdom deposited a joint submission with the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (the Commission) concerning the continental shelf extending beyond 200 nautical miles out into the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea. The Commission was established under Annex II of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This was the sixth submission received by the Commission, but the first such joint submission made by a group of coastal States.1 The Commission's task is to make recommendations on the outer limits of the continental shelf, not to delimit the boundaries of the continental shelf among the four coastal States. That will be done by the four States themselves through consultation and negotiation after the Commission has made its recommendations. The Commission began consideration of the joint submission at its 18th session which began on 21 August 2006 at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Sub-Commission that it appointed to examine the joint submission in detail has held a number of hearings with the four delegations—in August 2006, and January and March 2007. It is not expected to transmit its recommendations to the full Commission until the 20th session beginning in August 2007.