The territory of Australia has dramatically increased following the announcement on 21 April 2008 that its claim to an extended continental shelf has been approved by the Commission on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf. According to Martin Ferguson, Australian Minister for Resources and Energy, “Australia now has jurisdiction over an extra 2.5 million square kilometres of continental shelf, which is almost five times the size of France, seven times the size of Germany and almost 10 times the size of New Zealand.” Read the full statement. The Commission on the Outer Limits of the Continental Shelf is created…