The possibility of global warming and mineral exploration has changed the U.S. Coast Guard's responsibilities in Alaska, according to a top U.S. Coast Guard official.
The Coast Guard must ramp up efforts to patrol the northernmost climes as global warming increasingly melts areas that until recently where covered by the polar ice pack. This growing field of open water has opened the possibilities for more oil exploration, marine shipping and fishing in the Arctic.
“The fishing fleet has moved higher in the Bering (Sea) than ever before fishing for pollock, and the potential for sub-sea rights for mineral exploration are a couple of reasons that our role is changing in the Arctic,” said Rear Adm. Arthur Brooks, commander of the 17th Coast Guard District. “The retreat of the Arctic ice pack Ñ the size of California in the summer of 2007 Ñ is allowing further access into the high Arctic, is proof that the environment up there is changing.”
Brooks gave a presentation, called “U.S. Coast Guard responds to changing mission on the Arctic,” at the Alaska Forum on the Environment's Alaska Business Roundtable on Climate Change Feb. 14 at the Egan Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage.
Brooks said the Coast Guard last year found 180 Russian and 79 United States fishing boats vying for the same fish high in the Bering Sea.
“We staged flights by C-130 aircraft along the boundary lines to keep everyone honest and to make sure that the Americans followed the rules,” Brooks said.
Brooks explained his challenges in covering 33,000 miles of Alaska coastline and 3.8 million square miles of ocean.
“One of the first challenges will be over boundaries,” Brooks said.
Boundaries are not well defined, and to further complicate matters, the United States has never recognized a key political agreement between countries in the Arctic.
“A complication to the role of the Coast Guard is that the U.S. is not a signatory to the Law of Sea,” Brooks said. “We (U.S.) are one of the few nations that did not sign the Law of the Sea Treaty.”
The commander said that under the law of the sea, if one can show the continental shelf is contiguous and consistent from the landmass outward, he can claim the bottom resources beyond 200 miles.
“I think the law of the sea will be the mechanism that resolves boundary disputes in the Arctic among arctic nations,” he said.
This could become critical in shipping issues as Alaska's waters are bordered by Canada to the East and Russia on the Chukchi and Bering seas.
Once the ice pack retreats, it opens up the possibility for two traffic routes, the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic and the Northeast Passage along the coast of northern Russia.
“This becomes an attractive sea route because it cuts distance and time,” Brooks said. “This is not stable, or a low-risk passage, but is half the distance and half the cost from Europe to Asia and Asia to Europe.”
But should this become feasible in the future, Brooks said there is only one spot where deep water ships could pass Ñ on the west side of Little Diomede Island in the Bering Sea, located inside the United States International Dateline.
“Bering Straits will become the world's new choke point, as there is deep water behind the island, only 23 fathoms (138 feet). It's apparent to me we have to develop a traffic scheme there,” Brooks said.
Reach the reporter at rob.stapleton@morris.com.
