America quietly grew 386,000 square miles bigger last month – nearly twice the size of Spain.
The US Department of State (DOS) added six regions’ submerged offshore areas, or extended continental shelf (ECS), to the total landmass, allowing the country to claim more surrounding ocean-floor territory.
The seven regions included the Arctic, the Atlantic (east coast), the Bering Sea, the Pacific (west coast), the Mariana Islands, and two areas in the Gulf of Mexico.
DOS said the US shifted geographic coordinates defining the outer limits of the continental shelf in areas beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast.
The largest area of America’s ECS is in the Arctic, while all ECS regions span about twice the size of California.
The US Department of State (DOS) added six regions’ submerged offshore areas, or extended continental shelf (ECS), to the total landmass, allowing the country to claim more surrounding ocean-floor territory
The Wilson Center think tank, based in Washington, D.C., said the announcement has important implications for securing US territorial rights in the Arctic.
The ECS in the Arctic extends north to a distance of 350 nautical miles (in the east) and more than 680 nautical miles (in the west) from the territorial sea baselines of the United States.
However, the shift does not conflict with a 1990 agreement with Russia over the maritime boundary that passes through the Bering Strait.
‘There is no need for a future negotiation with Russia because each country has delineated the outer limit of its continental shelf consistent with the boundary established in 1990 in the Agreement between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Maritime Boundary, which has been provisionally applied by agreement between the two countries,’ according to the Wilson Center.
The seven other regions included the Atlantic (east coast), the Bering Sea, the Pacific (west coast), the Mariana Islands, and two areas in the Gulf of Mexico
The shift does not conflict with a 1990 agreement with Russia over the maritime boundary that passes through the Bering Sea
State Department project director Brian Van Pay noted that Canada will likely have an overlapping claim, which can be negotiated in the future.
The State Department said the extended continental shelf claim was made according to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provisions.
The US Senate has never ratified that treaty, but after 40 years, the government is announcing its continental shelf limits.
The DOS led the ECS effort through the US ECS Task Force, an interagency body of the U.S. Government composed of 14 agencies.
‘The continental shelf is the extension of a country’s land territory under the sea,’ DOS shared in a statement.
‘Like other countries, the United States has rights under international law to conserve and manage the resources and vital habitats on and under its ECS.’
Determining the ECS outer limits required data on the seabed and subsoil’s depth, shape, and geophysical characteristics.
‘Forty missions at sea, going to areas that we’ve never explored before, finding entire seamounts we didn’t even know existed,’ Van Pay told the Alaska Public.
‘And, if you add up all the time that our scientists spent at sea, it’s over three years of data collection.
DOS said the US shifted geographic coordinates defining the outer limits of the continental shelf in areas beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast
State Department project director Brian Van Pay noted that Canada will likely have an overlapping claim, which can be negotiated in the future
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) collected and analyzed the necessary data.
Data collection began in 2003 and constitutes the largest offshore mapping effort ever conducted by the United States.
‘It has long been clear that the United States has major economic interests in an undersea territory rich in oil, natural gas, minerals and sea life to which it has sovereign rights under the law of the sea as reflected in the Law of the Sea Convention, said the Wilson Center, which is a nonpartisan counsel and insights on global affairs.
‘It is also an important milestone reflecting US engagement with the law of the sea as reflected in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and as an aspect of advancing major US interests in the Arctic and other regions. ‘
