On November 13, 2010, the Russian news service RIA Novosti ran this report on the end of the 2010 Russian extended continental shelf cruise (July-October), during which new data was acquired for the Russian Federation's supplemental submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS).
Daria Vasilevskaya, deputy head of the Geology Department of the Natural Resources Ministry "told RIA Novosti the new research was necessary as details of previous expeditions were labeled secret due to the use of military equipment."
Speaking of earlier cruises on which ECS data was gathered, Vasilevskaya said:
" 'It was not possible to give a full description of the military technical equipment on account of secrecy.' The new research was done on board the ship Akademik Fyodorov from July through October. Only civilian equipment was used, Vasilevskaya said."
The use of civilian equipment does not automatically translate into any information being more readily available to non-participants in the Russian Federation CLCS process. It does, however, potentially signal somewhat greater transparency for the parts of the process that are eventually made public.
Arctic Policies and Declarations
- Arctic Strategies and Policies: Inventory and Comparative Study (NRF, L. Heininen)
- Geopolitics in the High North: National Arctic Strategy Documents
- Arctic Policies: Regional and National
- A Circumpolar Inuit Declaration on Sovereignty in the Arctic 2009
- A Circumpolar Inuit DeclaratIon on Resource Development Principles in Inuit Nunaat 2011
- Ilulissat Declaration 2008
- Arctic Governance Project
- Ron MacNab, "A Tale of Two Cities: Washington, Ottawa, and Arctic Governance" (p. 22-28) CPC 2009
Icebreaking into the Arctic
The USCGC HEALY embarked Barrow, Alaska, in August 2008 to map the US extended continental shelf, or ECS, in the Arctic Ocean (HLY 0805). Healy sailed again from 7 August to 16 September, 2009 (HLY 0905) to continue ECS mapping, joining with the Canadian icebreaker, the Louis S. St.-Laurent. The two vessels mapped together again in 2010 (see HLY1002) and 2011 (HLY1102).
As the only law professor on the science crew, I was along on HLY 0805 and 0905 to better understand the science behind the legal process that the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea establishes for states making ECS submissions. As to why the US is mapping now, even though it has not yet acceded to the Convention, read on both here, and in the Law of the Sea notes below.
Thanks to Vermont Law School and especially to Larry Mayer, Director of the University of New Hampshire's Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping, for making my part in the trip possible.
Thanks, as well, to Adriane Colburn, for opening new windows on and for the deep.
