I just note that claims for seabed sovereignty around the world have to be submitted to an UN Commission. The deadline is midnight NY April 13.
Not sure how the ownership boundaries are decided if there are overlapping claims.
World seabed disputes face U.N. deadline
Not sure how the ownership boundaries are decided if there are overlapping claims.
World seabed disputes face U.N. deadline
12 May OSLO (Reuters) - The world faces disputes over the seabed from the South China Sea to the North Pole at a May 13 U.N. deadline for claims meant as a milestone toward the final fixing of maritime boundaries.
Most coastal states have to define their continental shelves, areas of shallower water offshore, by Wednesday to a U.N. Commission that aims to set limits for national rights to everything from oil and gas to life on the ocean floor.
"This is the sweep after which the maritime limits should be fixed ... the final big adaptation of the world map," said Harald Brekke, a Norwegian official who is a vice-chair of the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
"We are seeing many overlapping submissions," he told Reuters of the deadline, set in 2004. Forty-eight nations have made full claims and dozens more have made preliminary submissions under the deadline.
Russia has made the most spectacular claim by using a mini-sub to plant a flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole in 2007, an area that Denmark also says it will also claim.
And submissions have highlighted territorial disputes between Japan and Russia in the Pacific, between China and neighbors over the South China Sea and between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
"China possesses indisputable sovereignty ... over the South China Sea islands and their near areas," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said of islands disputed with countries including Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. ....
Under existing law, nations can exploit the seabed if their continental shelves extend beyond territorial seas stretching 200 nautical miles from the coast. But the exact limits have not been defined on the map -- until now.
The United States is among dozens of nations not bound by the May 13 deadline, since it has not ratified the Convention on the Law of the Sea. President Barack Obama hopes to ratify.
Most coastal states have to define their continental shelves, areas of shallower water offshore, by Wednesday to a U.N. Commission that aims to set limits for national rights to everything from oil and gas to life on the ocean floor.
"This is the sweep after which the maritime limits should be fixed ... the final big adaptation of the world map," said Harald Brekke, a Norwegian official who is a vice-chair of the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
"We are seeing many overlapping submissions," he told Reuters of the deadline, set in 2004. Forty-eight nations have made full claims and dozens more have made preliminary submissions under the deadline.
Russia has made the most spectacular claim by using a mini-sub to plant a flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole in 2007, an area that Denmark also says it will also claim.
And submissions have highlighted territorial disputes between Japan and Russia in the Pacific, between China and neighbors over the South China Sea and between Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.
"China possesses indisputable sovereignty ... over the South China Sea islands and their near areas," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu said of islands disputed with countries including Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. ....
Under existing law, nations can exploit the seabed if their continental shelves extend beyond territorial seas stretching 200 nautical miles from the coast. But the exact limits have not been defined on the map -- until now.
The United States is among dozens of nations not bound by the May 13 deadline, since it has not ratified the Convention on the Law of the Sea. President Barack Obama hopes to ratify.
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