Canada makes scientific case for Arctic ownership

[Canadian4206]

Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, May 25, 2008

A year after Russia's controversial flag-planting dive to the North Pole seabed to assert ownership of a sprawling underwater mountain chain, Canada is launching a less brazen but potentially more effective counterclaim for control over parts of the disputed Arctic ridge - perhaps even the pole itself - by publishing a scientific paper in a scholarly journal.

The federal geologist heading Canada's bid to extend its continental shelf in the high Arctic says the early findings from a joint Canadian-Danish study of the Lomonosov Ridge suggest the massive undersea rock formation - which extends about 2,000 kilometres from the Ellesmere Island-Greenland boundary waters, past the North Pole and then towards Siberia - are "very positive" for Canada's case, and that the sea floor at the pole could eventually be ruled part of this country's territory.

"That is a possibility," Dr. Jacob Verhoef, Halifax-based director of the Geological Survey of Canada's Atlantic division, told Canwest News Service. "If we start measuring how far we can use (the research findings) to define our outer limits - whether we get all the way up to the pole, or half way, or more than half way - we simply do not have enough information at the moment. But that is part of our plan in the next three years."

Verhoef is heading two similar seabed mapping projects further west in Canada's Arctic, one along the Alpha Ridge northwest of Ellesmere Island and the other in the Beaufort Sea near the Yukon-Alaska border, where Canadian and U.S. interests clash.

He recently disclosed that the six-week, seabed mapping project completed this spring along the Alpha Ridge - which also appears to reach across the Arctic Ocean to Russia - produced good preliminary results for Canada, too.

The Lomonosov Ridge study has already been submitted to the prestigious Journal of Geophysical Research, which is currently vetting the paper, says Verhoef.

The challenge, he added, is to first demonstrate "whether the Lomonosov Ridge is attached" to the North American continent and then - in follow-up studies to be completed by 2011 - to determine how far north from the Canadian coast the attachment holds.

"The initial indications are, yes, the results are very positive," he said. "If it is peer-reviewed and accepted for publication, then it is solid scientifically. That is where we are at the moment."

Under rules set out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, proving scientifically that subsea terrain is a continuation of a country's continental shelf can give a nation control over wide swaths of submerged land - and access to potential offshore oil and gas and other resources.

Experts believe about one quarter of the world's untapped petroleum reserves lie below the Arctic Ocean.

Verhoef emphasizes that the initial Lomonosov Ridge study doesn't directly address the geopolitical "consequences" for Canada's claims under UNCLOS - "what we will publish is only the scientific information ... It will be out there in the scientific literature and people can look at it."

But if the second round of more detailed examinations along the Lomonosov confirm the initial findings, Verhoef says it probably means that "Canada's sovereign rights will be recognized, and that means Canada has the exclusive rights to explore and exploit anything that is on and below the sea floor."

The race among Arctic nations to lay claim to the polar ocean bottom drew global attention last summer when a team of Russian scientists - strongly backed by Moscow - sent a submersible to the North Pole sea floor to deposit a titanium Russian flag.

Though dismissed at the time as a "stunt" by Canada and the three other countries with Arctic Ocean coastlines - Norway, Denmark and the U.S. - the Russian expedition highlighted the growing interest among all five Arctic nations in exploiting the region's resources, especially at a time when climate change is rapidly shrinking the polar ice cover and giving ships much greater access to the area.

Russian and Danish politicians have each suggested recently that the North Pole belongs to their country.

After last summer's theatrics by the Russians, Danish science minister Helge Sander stated cryptically in a television interview that "there are things suggesting that Denmark could be given the North Pole."

But the intensifying competition, along with rising concerns about the environmental effects of increased polar development, prompted Danish foreign minister Per Stig Moeller to organize a five-nation Arctic Ocean summit being held this week in Greenland.

The event is expected to produce an agreement among the countries to cool the rhetoric, avoid further public conflict and abide by rules under UNCLOS and other international laws to sort out Arctic ownership disputes.

The Conservative government has decided to send Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn to represent Canada at the conference, a move panned by the country's top Arctic experts. Political scientists Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia and the University of Calgary's Rob Huebert have both argued that Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier should be at the table in Greenland to protect Canada's interests and to more clearly project the view that Arctic issues are a top government priority.

Earlier this month, Lunn announced that the federal government would double its planned spending on coastal mapping projects to $40 million over the next four years.

"You can have all the icebreakers you want and you can put all the flags on the ocean floor you want," he said at the time. "It's not going to help your claim. It's not going to make an iota worth of difference. It is based on sound rules."

Verhoef was dismissive last year about Russia's antics at the North Pole, arguing then that the country's claims along the Lomonosov Ridge were "premature."

But Russia has bolstered its flag flapping with serious scientific research, he says.

"The Russians have done similar experiments on their side of the Lomonosov Ridge," Verhoef noted. "They have not shown us the final details, but I wouldn't be surprised if they make the case - based on science, rather than what they did last year - that it is also attached to the Eurasian or Siberian margin, which is not impossible. Because it's possible that it is attached to both of them. And if that's the case, then they can use the ridge from their side to define their outer limits."

Source: Canada makes scientific case for Arctic ownership - CKA News

[PFunk]

We're coming to a head on this. A few years and we'll see what happens. This might very well be one of the last fights for unclaimed territory on this planet. Could also be one of the future battlefields.

Definitely going to be far more significant than the media is going to make it sound.

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

So another way to look at this is that Canada is seeking to become the first underwater imperialist nation.

[[R-MOD]Saobh]

Originally Posted by ArmedDrunk&Angry

So another way to look at this is that Canada is seeking to become the first underwater imperialist nation.

Future of PR --> Canada vs Insurgent Fish


on-topic: It'll be interesting how these findings will be reacted to by each side in the coming years. Those are huge areas with plenty of possible resources, and I doubt anybody is going to just back down because of solid scientific findings.

[ArmedDrunk&Angry]

Well can dolphins survive up there ?
The US Navy is supposed to have trained dolphins and with genetic engineering....who knows ?