Canada, U.S. Jointly Survey Arctic Shelf to Back Sovereignty Claims

Related: NATO's, Pentagon's New Strategic Battleground: The Arctic

Canada and the United States are partnering for a second year to conduct a joint survey of the extended continental shelf in the western Arctic Ocean. The 40-day survey, from August 7 to September 16, will continue the data-collection collaboration that began during last summer's joint mission.

This year, two research vessels equipped to cut through heavy ice - one American and one Canadian - will focus on the region north of Alaska onto Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge and eastward toward the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

As climate change melts the Northern polar ice cap, the polar countries are mapping their claims to this new frontier where much of the world's undiscovered oil and gas is believed to lie beneath the seabed. The data collected on this survey could support U.S. and Canadian rights to natural resources of the sea floor beyond 200 nautical miles from their coasts.


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