Pictures of Prime Minister Stephen Harper on the open deck of the submarine HMCS Corner Brook greeted many Canadians as they opened their morning newspapers on August 20, 2009. Mr. Harper was observing a joint military exercise in the Arctic designed to show the world that Canada is serious about defending its sovereignty claims in the north.
CBC News reported (August 18, 2009) that, “The prime minister said Operation Nanook is Canada’s most ambitious sovereignty exercise, adding that it’s underway as other countries are probing northern Canada by sea and by air.”
However, defending the Arctic against an aggressor would be an impossible task for Canada’s tiny military establishment; for example, HMCS Corner Brook is the country’s only operational submarine.
Dennis Bevington is the New Democrat Member of Parliament for the Western Arctic. He told the CBC that sovereignty issues are not “going to be settled by Canadian military might. Those are only going to be settled through negotiation with, you know, our largest partner in the world.”
America’s Arctic Claims
To the West of the Arctic Islands lies the Beaufort Sea. It washes up on the shorelines of Canada and the United States.
The boundary between the Yukon (Canada) and Alaska (the U.S.) is the 141st degree of longitude west. Canada argues that it has jurisdiction to the east of this line when it is extended out to sea. The U.S. begs to differ and says the line should be drawn parallel to the coast; this would give the U.S. control of a wedge-shaped piece of the Beaufort Sea that Canada claims. And, wouldn’t you know it, that wedge is described as an “area with high energy potential.”
Law of the Sea Applied to Claims
Canada is busy mapping the region more thoroughly in order to strengthen its claim. In the end, the issue will likely be decided at the United Nations under the Convention on the Law of the Sea. There’s only one snag to this: the United States has not yet ratified the Law of the Sea. However, the possibility of losing access to rich oil and gas deposits may improve Washington’s appetite for signing a law already accepted by 155 other nations.
Professor Rob Huebert at the University of Calgary is an expert on Arctic sovereignty issues. He thinks a storm is brewing up over the disputed boundary. He told Oilweek magazine (October 2007) “What Canadian government is going to be willing to reach some form of a compromise agreement? What American government is going to be willing to give up oil and gas? That one’s going to get really, really ugly.”
Russian Arctic Claims
In August 2007, Russian sailors in a submersible planted their nation’s flag on the floor of the Arctic Ocean. That was intended to cause a stir over how international boundaries are drawn. Russia seems to be taking the lead on this, but the other nations with Arctic coastlines (Canada, Denmark, Norway, and the United States) are also involved.
Geologically, Russia and Denmark have strong claims to parts of the Arctic Ocean. The Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS) sets out how nations can exert authority over ocean waters. First there’s the 12-mile limit, which gives a nation complete sovereignty over all activities a dozen nautical miles from the shoreline at low tide. Outside that is the 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ). In this area, nations don’t have sovereignty but do have the right to control economic activity, such as drilling for oil and gas.
Continental Shelves and Sovereignty
Where two countries are less than 400 nautical miles apart their EEZs will overlap. In this situation, the two are supposed to work out who gets what between them.
But, then everything gets complicated by continental shelves. These are the relatively shallow submarine platforms (100 to 200 metres deep) that surround continents. UNCLOS says that countries can claim undersea territory if they can prove it is directly connected to their section of the continental shelf. This is where the Lomonosov Ridge comes into play.
The ridge is an underwater mountain range that runs for 1,800 km across the floor of the Arctic Ocean stretching from islands off Siberia to Greenland. Russia says the ridge is an extension of its continental shelf and that makes the North Pole theirs. Not so fast says Denmark, which controls Greenland. The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland says the Lomonosov Ridge runs from Greenland to the North Pole. So, it too claims the Pole.
Meanwhile, Canada is spending $70 million mapping the seabed in the area. The hope is that Ellesmere Island will prove to be connected to the North Pole via that same Lomonosov Ridge.
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