Melting ice heats up Canada-US Arctic dispute
Nov 24, 2006 - 2:13:42 PM
, Reviewed by: Priya Saxena
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'You can't defend arctic sovereignty with words alone,' he said in an August speech in Iqualit, the capital of the Northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.
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By DPA,
[RxPG] Montreal, Nov 24 - As Arctic temperatures rise, a long-simmering dispute between Canada and the US over who controls the famed icy Northwest Passage is boiling up again.
The passage, which connects the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, snakes through the remote islands of Canada's Northern archipelago between Baffin Bay, off the west coast of Greenland, and the Beaufort Sea above Alaska.
It was first navigated by Norwegian explorer Roald Admunsen in 1906.
Today, it is rarely used because the sea freezes over for much of the year. Climate change, however, is propelling the issue back into the spotlight as the temperature rises and the ice melts.
Estimates of when the Northwest Passage will be open long enough for safe ship passage year round range from as soon as 15 years to much more conservative long-range expectations.
According to a US government report, 'State of the Arctic,' released last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration -, the temperature in the Arctic has risen by five degrees Celsius in as many years.
The level of sea ice has also dropped significantly, the report said.
The changing environment has reawakened debate over the Northwest Passage.
The economic stakes are high. Nearly a quarter of global undiscovered oil and gas reserves are estimated to be located underneath the Arctic Ocean.
Using the passage is also attractive to the international shipping industry. By avoiding the Panama Canal, an estimated 7,000 km are saved on a trip between Tokyo and New York.
No one disputes that the islands of the archipelago are Canadian. It's the status of the water around the islands that is at issue.
Canada claims it has internal jurisdiction over the waterway.
Maritime law gives a country sovereignty over 12 nautical miles, or about 22 km, off its coastline. Anything outside that is considered international waters.
Parts of the Northwest Passage are more than 100 km wide. Canada has argued that a 1951 International Court of Justice decision supports the practice of treating an archipelago or series of islands as one solid land mass.
They also assert that Inuit hunters, indigenous to the region, traverse the ice and use it for their hunting camps, making the area a de facto land mass.
If the shipping lanes were to open outside their authority, Canadian officials argue, there would be no way to regulate the behaviour of ships passing through Canadian waters, or to prevent a potentially catastrophic oil spill in the fragile Arctic ecosystem.
But the US is adamant that the passage is international waters, and have challenged Canada's claim to the waters on several occasions.
In 1969 and again in 1970, the American-registered SS Manhattan, an oil tanker specially re-inforced for arctic sailing, travelled through the passage without Canadian permission to test the viability of the passage as a shipping route for companies drilling in the Arctic oil fields.
Even though Canada was not asked, the government granted permission and provided a military escort until it reached undisputed waters.
In 1985, the American icebreaker Polar Sea travelled through the waters, again without asking. The incident led to a 1988 deal where the US agreed to always ask and Canada agreed to never say 'no'.
Despite the agreement, American submarines have allegedly travelled through Canadian waters underneath the ice pack, using nuclear power to stay submerged for extended periods of time.
Canada does not have nuclear-powered submarines and is unable to detect if someone enters the waters without their knowledge.
The debate was brought up again earlier this month when the former American ambassador to Canada, Paul Cellucci, threw his support behind the Canadian claim.
'I think it's in the security interests of the US and Canada to have the Northwest Passage under the control of Canada,' he told a conference in Ottawa.
He said conceding Canada's sovereignty would remove any doubt about who is responsible for policing of the channel once it becomes accessible to more ordinary sea-going craft.
Current US ambassador David Wilkins was quick to distance Washington from Celluci's comments.
'Our position is that the Northwest Passage is a strait for international navigation. That's been our position and will continue to be our position,' he said.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has taken an aggressive stance and has pledged to strengthen Canada's military presence in the North to defend the claim.
'You can't defend arctic sovereignty with words alone,' he said in an August speech in Iqualit, the capital of the Northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.
'It takes a Canadian presence on the ground, in the air and on the sea and a government that is internationally recognised for delivering on its commitments.'
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