The New Hampshire

Issue date: 2/22/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Larry Mayer USA looks to extend it's sovereignty 200 nautical miles off the coast of Alaska

A recent release from the Center for Coastal and Oceanic Mapping Joint Hydrographic Center (CCOM-JHC) at UNH and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has shown that the boundaries off the continental slope of Alaska extend much farther from U.S. coastal territory than previously known.

Such evidence could help to support U.S. claims to natural resources farther than 200 nautical miles from the coast of Alaska. The data comes after the research teams' recent expedition to the Arctic Area known as the Chukchi Cap, some 600 miles North of Alaska.

Conducted from mid-August to mid-September of 2007 aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, the expedition covered more than 5,400 linear nautical miles of an area previously little known to researchers. Students from developing countries all over the world took part in the expedition, as well as state department representatives.

"The nice thing about this mapping is that where we are mapping is one of the least mapped places in the world so every time we go there we find stuff that's really new and different," said scientist Larry Mayer, director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping and co-director of the Joint Hydrographic Center.

United Nations Law of the Sea Convention allows for recognized nations to extend their natural resource boundaries beyond 200 nautical miles off the continental slope. The Bush Administration has supported the approval of the convention, which now is under consideration in the Senate.

"There was this indication that where we thought the natural extension was, it looks like, it looks much farther and that is important implications for the potential expansion of the extended continental shelf," said Mayer.

If the legislation is passed, the United States would not only have rights to the resources in the area, it would also be responsible for the protection of the area, and require other nations to be granted permission to travel into U.S. sea space.

The rights that the United States would be entitled to would not fall within territorial limits and would only be for natural resources.

"It's a different set of rights than we have in the territorial sea and even in the exclusive economic zone, it's restricted to the resources of the sea floor," said NOAA Office of the Coast Survey researcher Andy Armstrong. Armstrong is co-chief scientist on the expedition, and co-director of the Joint Hydrographic Center alongside Mayer.

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