Earthsky Interviews
Larry Mayer says science and the Law of the Sea can work together
09-21-2009 - Water
Geophysicist Larry Mayer is referring to the United Nation’s Law of the Sea. It’s a twenty-seven-year-old treaty that allows countries to extend their maritime boundaries – if they back their claim requests with science. To support the U.S. claim, Mayer and his team have mapped more than a million square kilometers of seafloor since 2003.
Larry Mayer: … based on the depth of the sea floor, the shape of the sea floor, and the thickness of sediment.
Mayer said that many countries want to extend their maritime boundaries because of the natural resources contained in and under the sea like fish, minerals and petroleum.
Larry Mayer: There’s been lots of misinterpretation about the mapping we’re doing and particularly the mapping we’re doing in the Arctic. There’s all this talk about it being a terrible land grab and I think it’s really just the opposite.
Mayer expects many countries, including the U.S., will gain territory with the Law of the Sea Treaty as its guide, although, he says, seafloor data analysis could take years. This treaty has been in the news lately because the U.S. is considering signing it. As of mid-2009, the U.S. had not yet done so.
Larry Mayer added that the Law of the Sea Treaty has the additional benefit of protecting the sea floor and underlying resources under stringent environmental laws. He explained the science behind his seafloor mapping:
Larry Mayer: Our efforts have really focused on what we call the bathymetry, measuring the depths. And that we do with an instrument with a multibeam sonar which puts out a little ping of sound, a number of very narrowly focused beam of sound and we can map as much as 3-4 times the water depth with great accuracy. We are looking in particular for a major change in the slope of the seafloor.
Written by Joni Hall
2 Responses to “Larry Mayer says science and the Law of the Sea can work together”
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Larry Mayer
Larry Mayer is a geophysics expert in sonar imaging, remote characterization of the seafloor, and advanced 3-D visualization for ocean mapping. Founder and director of the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, he is also co-director of the NOAA/UNH Joint Hydrographic Center. He is the recipient of the Keen ... >>
The LOST is purely a communist power grab. There will be no \”good science\” coming out of it as the folks in power will only allow the \”right answers\”. Collectivism is always bad. Read it and weap. It will destroy the United States, the greatest country to exist in the history of man.
love sciencde
Ben, have you actually READ “UNCLOS”?
Read the Outer Space Treaty and then think if we know as much about the sea floor as outer space. It’s in the SPIRIT of the code. There MUST be a framwork for the International Tribunal to hear cases and provide justice for developing countries who are trying to protect their natural resources. Fisheries, soveriegnty, right of passage, it’s all there…
http://www.oosa.unvienna.org/oosa/SpaceLaw/outerspt.html