Arctic Mapping Project Combines Science and Law for VLS Professor Betsy Baker
August 8, 2008
When the USCG Icebreaker HEALY departs from Barrow, Alaska on August 14, VLS Professor Betsy Baker will be on board as the only lawyer among the group of 35 scientists and researchers setting out to help map the extended continental shelf in the U.S. Arctic.
Traveling with the mission’s Chief Scientist Larry Mayer, director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, the team is working in partnership with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to carry out the Congressional charge of long-term mapping of the U.S. continental margin. The mapping project includes not only the U.S. Arctic but also the Atlantic, the Gulf of Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and the Northern Marianas.
The Arctic’s extended continental shelf, which encompasses areas beyond 200 miles from national coastal baselines, is becoming more accessible due to melting Arctic ice, and thereby attracting more interest for its oil and natural gas reserves. In July, the U.S. Geological Survey reported the Arctic may hold up to 90 billion barrels of “technically recoverable” undiscovered oil reserves, with about one-third of that coming primarily from the outer continental shelf.
In addition to the research opportunity, Professor Baker sees the trip as a way to enhance her seminar, The Arctic, the Law of the Sea, and the Environment, that she will offer at VLS this fall.
“I am looking to bring back a better understanding of the area my students will be studying. We will be investigating the potential for cooperation in the Arctic under existing treaties and forums such as the Arctic Council,” she said.
“I will also return knowing more about the science behind the legal definition of the continental shelf, which differs from the scientific definition. I will see first hand—and be able to convey to my students—some of the difficulties scientists have in applying the legal definition to the raw data they are gathering.”
For Professor Baker, who has published articles in international environmental law, the experience on the icebreaker brings together two areas of great personal interest.
“The science/law interplay has always intrigued me. I really do want to talk to the scientists about how law helps or hinders them in their work,” she said. “There are all kinds of issues in international governance and cooperation here. There is potential for this to be a good model for how we do environmental management in other parts of the world.”
Data gathered on this and three earlier CCOM/HEALY cruises since 2003 will be used to support a possible United States’ assertion of its extended continental shelf in the Arctic under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Immediately following this cruise, the HEALY will head back to sea on a joint mission with a Canadian icebreaker, the Louis Saint Laurent, which will be gathering seismic data to complement the data gathered by the HEALY.
Due to the length of the deployment, Professor Baker will return from her trip on Sept. 7, hours before the start of her fall seminar the next day. She is excited about applying the information that has been garnered on the journey.
“Lawyers draft better agreements when they know something about the subject being regulated,” she said. “On board we will be ‘seeing,’ through mapping, this part of the ocean floor for the first time ever, and all of us will know more about the shape of the continental shelf when we return.”
Read Betsy Baker's blog postings from the Arctic!
Appropriate to the VLS commitment to law and the environment, the icebreaker HEALY is named after a 19th century captain whose work in the Arctic addressed both areas. Captain Michael Healy (1839-1904) commanded the CG Cutter BEAR from 1886 to 1895, bringing her to Alaskan waters for the first time. For more on the vessel’s history, visit www.uscg.mil.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center has tracked drastic reductions in Arctic sea ice over the last 20 years and indicates that its melt this summer is similar to a year ago. Arctic sea ice extent on July 16, 2008 stood at almost 400,000 square miles less than the 20-year average for 1979 to 2000. Warmer winds from the south are pushing the ice away from the Alaska coast this summer and towards the North Pole. For more information, visit www.nsidc.org.
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