page_title: Territorial claims in the Arctic
section_title: Beaufort Sea
hierarchical_section_title: Territorial claims in the Arctic / Beaufort Sea
caption_attribution_description: English: 1:1,000,000 scale Operational Navigation Chart, Sheet C-9, 6th edition. Covers Canada, United States. Lambert Conformal Conic Projection. Standard Parallels 65 20N and 70 40N. Center longitude 144 47 30W.
context_page_description: The Arctic consists of land, internal waters, territorial seas, exclusive economic zones and international waters above the Arctic Circle. All land, internal waters, territorial seas and EEZs in the Arctic are under the jurisdiction of one of the eight Arctic coastal states: Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States. International law regulates this area as with other portions of Earth.
  Under international law, the North Pole and the region of the Arctic Ocean surrounding it, are not owned by any country. The five surrounding Arctic countries are limited to a territorial sea of 12 nautical miles and an exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles adjacent to their coasts measured from declared baselines filed with the UN. The waters beyond the territorial seas 12 nautical miles of the coastal states are considered the "high seas". The waters and sea bottom that is not confirmed to be extended continental shelf beyond the exclusive economic zones are considered to be the "heritage of all mankind."
context_section_description: There is an ongoing dispute involving a wedge-shaped slice on the International Boundary in the Beaufort Sea, between the Canadian territory of Yukon and the American state of Alaska.
  The Canadian position is that the maritime boundary should follow the land boundary. The American position is that the maritime boundary should extend along a path equidistant from the coasts of the two nations. The disputed area may hold significant hydrocarbon reserves. The US has already leased eight plots of terrain below the water to search for and possibly bring to market oil reserves that may exist there. Canada has protested diplomatically in response.
  No settlement has been reached to date, because the US has signed but has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). If the treaty is ratified, the issue would likely be settled at a bilateral negotiation.
  On August 20, 2009 United States Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke announced a moratorium on fishing the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska, including the disputed waters.
  Randy Boswell, of Canada.com wrote that the disputed area covered a 21,436 square kilometres (8,276 sq mi) section of the Beaufort Sea (smaller than Israel, larger than El Salvador).
  He wrote that Canada had filed a "diplomatic note" with the United States in April when the US first announced plans for the moratorium.
caption: Map including the border area
exif: {"Image ImageWidth": "23769", "Image ImageLength": "17353", "Image BitsPerSample": "[8, 8, 8]", "Image Compression": "Uncompressed", "Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Make": "i2s Digibook Scanner", "Image Model": "Suprascan A0 10000 RGB", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image SamplesPerPixel": "3", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image PlanarConfiguration": "1", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS5 Macintosh", "Image DateTime": "2011:07:05 18:13:26", "Image ExifOffset": "324", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "472", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5992", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "9254", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "6756"}