Careers, Jobs and Education Resources for: Arctic Ocean

The Arctic Ocean is the smallest of the world's five oceans (after the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, and the recently delimited Southern Ocean). The Northwest Passage (US and Canada) and Northern Sea Route (Norway and Russia) are two important seasonal waterways. A sparse network of air, ocean, river, and land routes circumscribes the Arctic Ocean. (from the CIA)
 
 
 

Economic Overview

Economic activity is limited to the exploitation of natural resources, including petroleum, natural gas, fish, and seals.

Environmental Issues

Endangered marine species include walruses and whales; fragile ecosystem slow to change and slow to recover from disruptions or damage; thinning polar icepack

Location

Body of water between europe, asia, and north america, mostly north of the arctic circle

Area

Total: 14.056 million sq km note: includes baffin bay, barents sea, beaufort sea, chukchi sea, east siberian sea, greenland sea, hudson bay, hudson strait, kara sea, laptev sea, northwest passage, and other tributary water bodies

Slightly less than 1.5 times the size of the us

International Disputes

The littoral states are engaged in various stages of demonstrating the limits of their continental shelves beyond 200 nautical miles from their declared baselines in accordance with article 76, paragraph 8, of the united nations convention on the law of the sea; record summer melting of sea ice in the arctic has restimulated interest in maritime shipping lanes and sea floor exploration

Sources: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)