Tuesday Wednesday, it was reported that the United States grew by a million square kilometers, about 60 percent of Alaska’s landmass.
The State Department enlarged the country’s geography by citing international law by defining how deep beneath the ocean that the continent’s shelf extends. The new boundaries are spread across seven ocean areas and more than 50% of the claim is located in the Arctic.
“America is more expansive than it was a year ago,” said Mead Treadwell who was a Former Alaska lieutenant governor, and former head of the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. Many decades of scientific research and dozens of ice-breaking missions, and precise seafloor mapping were the basis for his assertion that he made, he added.
“It’s not exactly an exact replica of the Louisiana Purchase. It’s not exactly the acquisition of Alaska however the subsurface and land resources that is controlled by the United States is two Californias bigger,” he said.
The State Department didn’t make anyone available for interviews on Tuesday however, it stated that in the documents that the continental shelf claims were formulated pursuant to the provisions from the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. It is true that the U.S. Senate has never been a signatory to the treaty, however the Biden administration decided to submit the claim regardless. This is something that Treadwell has been pushing for a long time as have the other past chairmen of the Arctic Research Commission.
Other countries might be hesitant about the unilateral decision, however “who’s going to take on our actions?” Treadwell said. “Because there’s no overlap claim. If someone returned with the words, ‘Your science is not good I’m sure it’s likely that the United States would listen. However, I don’t think that scientific research is deficient. I think we’ve seen very excellent science.”
The State Department’s acceptance of its extensive continental shelf Arctic does not interfere with the 1990 agreement to establish the boundary between the sea and Russia.
“None one of the permanent lines defining the boundaries on the continental shelves of the United States are located west of the boundary that was agreed that is shared with Russian Federation,” the State Department said in an explanation outlining the announcement.
The U.S. and other countries have already claimed 200 miles off their coastlines as Exclusive economic zones. They hold rights in these zones to the resources on the seabed, as well as above the seas.
The declaration on Tuesday of the extended continental shelf, which extends to 200 miles from shore, does not provide the jurisdiction of the water column, nor fishing rights. Treadwell acknowledged that it’s still important in that it grants the federal government authority over the seafloor as well as any precious resources that could be extracted from it as well as the authority to determine who is allowed to conduct research or build pipelines along it.
A few of the regions of ocean that the U.S. has claimed as extended continental shelf include the Atlantic and the Pacific and in the Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and the Mariana Islands. The vast portion north of Alaska as well as a smaller area of the Bering Sea covers almost the size of Texas.
