Analysis of CLCS Recommendations in Light of Their Relevance to the Delineation of a United States Extended Continental Shelf (ECS) in the Arctic

• Main Author: Irish, Onni
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: University of New Hampshire Scholars' Repository 2016
• Subjects: Chukchi; Alaska
• Online Access: https://scholars.unh.edu/ccom_seminars/203; https://scholars.unh.edu/context/ccom_seminars/article/1202/type/native/viewcontent/204.jpg_AWSAccessKeyId_AKIAYVUS7KB2IXSYB4XB_Signature_RLeiQbKSrMsFUnxOoC0vaeQ6xYI_3D_Expires_1725029626

Article 76 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea provides a mechanism by which a coastal State can extend sovereign rights over resources of the seafloor and subsurface outside of its 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone. In order for a coastal State to delineate this region, often referred to as the extended continental shelf (ECS), bathymetric, geophysical and geological data must be collected and analyzed to apply the mandates defined within Article 76. The coastal State must present its ECS delineation to a commission, called the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). The CLCS reviews coastal States’ submissions and publishes recommendations as to whether they believe that the proposed ECS boundary is in accordance with Article 76. The United States has a potential ECS in the Chukchi Borderland region north of Alaska. This thesis examined two coastal States’ CLCS recommendations, the Kerguelen Plateau (Australia) and Vøring margin (Norway), to assess what criteria the CLCS utilized to classify seafloor highs, to forecast the impact these recommendations may have on a potential submission of the United States in the Chukchi Borderland region. This thesis has found that the CLCS requires a coastal State with seafloor highs that are connected to its continental margin to show that these features are (or not) morphologically and geologically continuous with the continental margin and landmass. If the coastal State can prove the seafloor high under question satisfies both of these criteria, it could potentially increase the coastal State’s final ECS outer boundary. Application of these criteria to the Chukchi Borderland region found that available data today could substantiate an argument that the Chukchi Borderland fulfills both criteria; however, further geological data needs to be collected from the northern extension of the Chukchi Borderland to support an Article 76 seafloor high classification. Presenter Bio Onni completed her undergraduate degree at the Walsh ...