A Russian flag on the seabed beneath the ice of the North Pole is among the few signs that states are waking up to a 2009 deadline for what may be the last big carve-up of maritime territory in history.
By some estimates, about 7 million sq km (2.7 million sq miles) -- the size of Australia -- could be divided up around the world with so far unknown riches ranging from oil and gas to seabed marine organisms at stake.
Only eight claims have been made although about 50 coastal states are bound by a May 13, 2009, deadline for submissions under a U.N. drive to set the now vague outer limits of each country's sea floor rights under a 1982 convention.
"We are clearly behind schedule," said Peter Croker, a senior Irish official who is the outgoing chair of the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, which examines coastal states' submissions.
"There's quite a lot at stake. But there has been a bit of inertia," he said.
Russia, Australia, France and Brazil are among the few to have made claims. Most spectacularly, Moscow announced this month that explorers had planted a rust-free Russian tricolour beneath the North Pole in waters 4,261 metres (13,980) deep.
Under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention, coastal states own the seabed beyond existing 200 nautical mile zones if it is part of a continental shelf of shallower waters.
Some shelves stretch hundreds of miles before reaching the deep ocean floor, which is owned by no state. The rules aim to fix clear geological limits for shelves' outer limits but are likely to lead to a tangle of overlapping claims.
LAST SHIFT
"This will probably be the last big shift in ownership of territory in the history of the earth," said Lars Kullerud, who advises developing states on submissions at the GRID-Arendal foundation, run by the U.N. Environment Programme and Norway.
"Many countries don't realise how serious it is."
Yannick Beaudoin, who also works at GRID-Arendal, said: "2009 is a final and binding deadline. This allows you to secure sovereignty without having to fight for it."
The biggest controversies look likely to occur in regions where countries ring water, such as the South China Sea or the Arctic Ocean.
Isolated specks on the map, such as Easter Island or Ascension Island, could end up owning vast tracts of seabed. Off Africa, Madagascar may have a strong claim to a shelf stretching far south towards Antarctica.
Sorting out rights to minerals, geothermal energy or marine organisms far from the coast is becoming ever less academic as technology advances -- modern oil rigs can drill in water 10,000 feet (3,048 metres) deep.
