UNITED NATIONS 13 May 2009 Nations race to lodge seabed claims before deadline 

The deadline for countries to submit territorial claims to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf is 13 May 2009. Oil and mineral treasure lies under the sea, so there there is a rush to divvy up the seabed before the deadline. As of Apr 2009, 21 submissions from coastal countries had been filed, and as many as 50 could file before the deadline. Russia claims the Arctic. The other Arctic states -- Canada, the United States, Norway and Denmark -- oppose the claim. The issue could push Washington to ratify the Treaty.

Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), countries can claim control of the seabed beyond the traditional 200-mile limit if they can prove the ocean floor is connected to their continental shelf. Submissions must be based upon sound technical data and meet requirements prescribed within Article 76 of UNCLOS (1982). States can file joint claims, after pre-agreed territorial shares with their partners, or individual claims.

Moscow argues that the Lomonosov Ridge, an undersea mountain range that begins on land in Russia, reaches to the North Pole -- and therefore that the North Pole belongs to Moscow. It capped the argument with a controversial dive to the ocean floor that planted a rust proof Russian flag below the Pole. Canada and Denmark claim parts of the Lomonosov ridge.

The Philippines wants its zone extended to include the resource-rich Kalayaan Island Group, which includes some of the Spratley Islands in the South China Sea. Vietnam, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and China have long-standing overlapping claims in the area.

France wants territory that includes the Bay of Biscay between France and Spain and the Celtic Sea, which France shares with Ireland and Great Britain. It also wants French Guyana, a host of African islands, the Kerguelen Islands near Antarctica and the Crozet Islands, which lie hundreds of miles south of Madagascar.

For the present, the Antarctic is out of bounds for exploiting its mineral resources because of the 1959 Antarctic Treaty. The seabed around the the Antarctic is a different issue. New Zealand is keeping its options open to match British plans to claim sovereign rights over a vast area of the seabed off Antarctica. Australia – which claims 42 per cent of the Antarctic – included data on the seabed off its Antarctic territory in its own UNCLOS claim.

Britain and Chile claim parts of the Antarctic. London also has designs on the waters around the Falklands and parts of the Bay of Biscay.

RELATED READING:

Oceans and Law of the Sea (UN)
http://www.un.org/Depts/los/index.htm

Increased manpower, resources needed to meet growing workload of UN Continental Shelf Commission (UN 19 Jun 2007)
http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2007/sea1887.doc.htm

Soil samples "prove" Arctic is Russian (Spiegel 21 Sep 2007)
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,507062,00.html