Canada has sent two icebreakers to the High Arctic to gather scientific data in support of its bid to claim sea bed under and beyond the North Pole.

The coastguard vessels Terry Fox and Louis St Laurent set out on a six-week journey that will take them to the eastern side of the undersea Lomonosov Ridge, which runs from near Ellesmere Island in Nunavut northward over the pole.

The trip comes after Canada made a partial submission to a UN body in December considering claims from various countries to areas of the Arctic seabed.