US currently conducting surveying missions to shore up its Arctic claims to the CLCS

In spite of the imperfect domestic status of UNCLOS, the United States government has recognized the importance of establishing an extended continental shelf in the Arctic based on the Convention's terms. In conjunction with a partner of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ("NOAA"), Congress commissioned a study in 2001 to collect data that would support a claim based on an extension of Alaska's continental shelf. n323 After several Arctic cruises, the study has collected data suggesting that America could claim an extended continental shelf off the coast of Alaska about the size of 500,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of California. n324 Further, an interagency task force was organized in 2007 under the State Department for the purpose of delimiting the American continental shelf. n325 Dubbed the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Project, this task force has dispatched individual and collaborative voyages, each one charged specifically with collecting data that would shore up a claim under Article 76 of UNCLOS.