The US government unilaterally announced new limits for the country’s continental shelf last week.
The move effectively translates into Washington claiming about one million square kilometers of waters and seabed in the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific oceans, as well as in the Gulf of Mexico and the Bering Sea.
"The US announcement of its extended continental shelf claims establishes America's strategic and economic interest in the vast resources below the seabed, from the minerals and rare earths needed to power the green economy, to oil and gas," explained Sherri Goodman, a former environmental officer at the Pentagon.
However, Ret.Col. Pierre Leblanc, former commander of the Canadian Forces in the Arctic, pointed out that deep sea oil and mineral extraction would require considerable investment, not to mention additional surveys as the potential of these natural resource deposits is yet to be properly assessed.
"There has not been sufficient exploration and research to support a claim based on the presence of those minerals," Leblanc said.
He also suggested that the US hurried to lay claim to parts of the Arctic shelf out of fear that Russia or Canada might have beaten them to it.
"I think that the United States made its claim to secure its interests in the extension," Leblanc said. "If it did not, Russia and Canada could potentially claim parts of that area."
The situation is further complicated by the fact that the US has neither signed nor ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) that regulates how a country may make an extended continental shelf claim beyond its 200-mile exclusive economic zone, as the US is doing.