Coastal nations have quietly taken over areas of seabed totalling almost the size of Australia since 2002 and far more is up for grabs in one of the biggest redrawings of the world map in history, experts say.
A year after a May 13, 2009, deadline for nations to outline the outer limit of their continental shelves, a U.N. commission is struggling with a vast backlog of claims to regions such as the Arctic that may contain oil or minerals.
"It's going on quietly ... but we must speed up the work," said Harald Brekke, a vice chairman of the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which is overseeing what is meant to be the final fixing of maritime boundaries.
"In the worst case it could be 20-30 years, which is not acceptable," he said of the current pace by the part-time commission.
Under existing laws, coastal states control a zone 200 nautical miles off their coasts. The new round will fix rights to exploit the seabed in places wherea continental shelf, usually of shallow waters, extends further offshore.
The size of the shifts is comparable to momentous changes to the world map after the end of European colonial rule, said Joan Fabres of the U.N. Environment Program.
Brekke estimated that the commission has, since 2002, approved areas totalling 2.32 million square miles for nations such as France, Britain, Australia, Mexico and Norway.
Brekke said the total areas claimed so far by more than 50 nations add up to an area slightly bigger than the entire North American continent.
Some island nations, such as the Cook Islands, Palau, the Seychelles or Micronesia, could gain control of seabeds hundreds of times the size of their land, Fabres said. His group advises developing nations.
Control of the seas has gradually extended offshore. In the 18th century, for instance, it was set at three miles — the distance a cannonball could be fired from the coast.
So far, recommendations by the commission have been for uncontroversial areas — it lacks powers to rule on overlapping claims such as in the Arctic, the South China Sea or the Falkland Islands disputed by Britain and Argentina.
About 50 nations have submitted data about their continental shelves. A few, including the United States, are not bound to do so because they have not ratified the U.N. Law of the Sea.
The Arctic, for instance, may become more accessible because of a thaw caused by global warming.
Many experts are urging caution following BP's spill in the Gulf of Mexico linked to the fatal explosion on a Transocean rig.
In a symbolic claim in 2007, a Russian submarine planted a flag on the seabed beneath the North Pole in waters nearly 14,000 feet deep. That is beyond the limit of current drilling technology.
