SJR 7-OPPOSE UN DESIGNATION OF ARCTIC OCEAN  2:52:16 PM CHAIR MCGUIRE announced consideration of SJR 7. SENATOR GENE THERRIAULT, Alaska State Legislature, sponsor of SJR 7, said it was introduced after his staff saw an article relating how a group of top U.S. and Canadian scientists proposed that an ice park be established under the auspices of the U.N. in the Arctic to protect the critically shrinking Arctic ice from further damage. It would preclude trans-Arctic Ocean shipping, resource development and any increased human activity in the Arctic. With the uncertainty of exactly what is going on with the Polar Ice Cap, the resolution calls for not taking the step of creating an Arctic Ocean ice park as a World Heritage Site. 2:53:57 PM SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked what happens when something is designated as a World Heritage Site. DAVE STANCLIFF, Staff, to Senator Therriault, Alaska State Legislature said the Kluane area in Alaska and Canada is a World Heritage Site extending across international boundaries. It creates a multi-jurisdictional management regime that goes across sometimes cultural but most often international boundaries. There is a movement in this case to suggest that such a multinational effort would be advantageous environmentally. The problem is that all the countries of the world are still asserting and wrangling over who owns what part of the Arctic. 2:55:17 PM SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI questioned if the U.N. designates Kluane as a World Heritage Site, would that doesn't usurp any jurisdiction or take away any rights from the United States. SENATOR THERRIAULT answered his understanding is that World Heritage Sites are agreed to be managed according to the rules that are set up by the United Nations (U.N.) The U.N. cannot take away Alaska's right to control the acreage; it's whether we are willing to go into it. If any step were to freeze those suggestions of who owns what, that might be a disadvantage to the U.S. and to Alaska, being that it is the only state of the United States that is in the Arctic. 2:56:59 PM SENATOR KOOKESH moved to report SJR 7 from committee with individual recommendations and attached fiscal note(s). There being no objection, the motion carried.