NOAA Sets Out to Map the Floor of Part of the Arctic Ocean

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is starting its third trip to the Arctic in an effort to map part of the floor of the Arctic Ocean. They are working in cooperation with University of New Hampshire's Joint Hydrographic Center and the National Science Foundation.  The expedition will start on August 17 and last for four weeks.

The ship is a very special one, the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy which has been specially made to map areas like the sea floor of the northern Chukchi Cap section of the Arctic Ocean. The Healy is like a floating laboratory with an excess of 4,200 square feet of lab space and a multibeam echo sounder, which is the main tool that will be used to map the sea floor. It is a mostly unknown region and the aim of the expedition is to get a better understanding if its morphology, which means its shape and to see if it is feasible to include it withing the United States' extended continental shelf under the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea.

States that have a coast line legally have sovereign rights over all of the resources of the sea floor and the surface under their continental shelves. The Law of the Sea states that a country has the rights to 200 nautical miles of continental shelf and many extend its shelf further, but only if it meets certain geologic qualifications.

In order to do this, a nation must submit scientific data pertaining to their continental shelves to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. If the country's claim meets the requirements, it strengthens the country's legal position for extending their continental shelf.

In order to be able to use the above steps, the Administration is seeking Senate consent for the U.S. to join the Law of the Sea Convention. By joining the convention, the US would have the rights to protect the coast and ocean resources.