The Chilean foreign minister Carolina Valdivia on Monday submitted to the United Nations Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf the report on the extended continental shelf to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula. This is closely linked to Chile's role in scientific research and conservation issues.
”With this presentation Chile has taken a leap forward referred to the extended continental shelf of Chilean territory. This report is the result of a joint work with the different State departments and the National Committee on the Continental Platform. Following thirteen years of scientific, technical and bathymetry research, the report established the existence of an extended platform which covers an area of 210,000 square kilometers.
The milestone follows on the submission made by Chile in December 2020 before the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf referred to Easter Island extended continental shelf covering a surface half a million square kilometers.
The continental shelf is the natural prolongation of the land territory of States under the sea. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Chile is a State Party since 1997, contains two concepts of continental shelf: the “scientific continental shelf”, which corresponds to the geological or geo-morphological extension of the land territory under the sea, and the “juridical continental shelf” which corresponds to the seabed and subsoil up to a distance of 200 nautical miles from the coast, regardless of the geomorphology of the seabed.
By virtue of its sovereignty over the land, a coastal State´s rights over its continental shelf exist ipso facto and ab initio, without need of a claim or declaration. Nevertheless, when it comes to the outer continental shelf – that is to say the continental shelf that extends beyond 200 nautical miles from the coast- UNCLOS provides that the coastal State must submit information on the limits of the continental shelf to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf set up under Annex II of the Convention.