So who owns the Arctic?

No one owns the North Pole, but every country with a border on the Arctic Ocean claims some of its waters. Because the North Pole is covered by an ice shelf and isn't actually land, it is governed by the Law of the Sea, a 1982 U.N. treaty signed by more than 150 countries. The agreement gives each nation control of the area up to 200 nautical miles (230 miles) off its coast, so everyone with so much as a shoreline in the Arctic gets some Arctic waters and whatever natural resources might lie beneath them.

This seemingly straightforward rule is complicated by another regulation that allows countries to extend their waters to up to 350 nautical miles (403 miles) if they can prove their underwater continental shelf extends beyond the normal 200-mile boundary. In other words, we don't fully know who owns the Arctic until we know the shape of the underlying seabed.

Original article by Lee Hudson Teslik

Wed, Dec 12, 2007  Permanent link
Categories: Arctic, Earth, Planet