US Continental Shelf Policy

Abstract

Since 2001, the United States has been gathering and analyzing data to determine the outer limits of its extended continental shelf (ECS). Beginning in 2007, however, that effort became a more serious and coordinated endeavor with the establishment of a multi-agency ECS Task Force and dedicated funding to undertake this important work. The US juridical continental shelf begins at the Barrow margin and extends northward across the Chukchi Borderland, possibly as far as the Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge system. The Chukchi Borderland is a submarine elevation that enables the United States to define an ECS beyond 350 nm from shore. Four other countries bordering the Arctic Ocean have ECS in this part of the world. Keywords: Chukchi Borderland; extended continental shelf (ECS); United States