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U.S. Marine Boundary Descriptions
Maritime Zones
The boundaries of a nation’s maritime zones delimit the extent of that nation’s sovereignty, exclusive rights, jurisdiction, and control over maritime areas off its coast. The boundaries may include a 12 nautical mile territorial sea, a 24 nautical mile contiguous zone, a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, and the continental shelf. The boundaries of the U.S. maritime zones are depicted on official U.S. nautical charts produced and maintained by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
- International Maritime Boundaries
- Baseline
- Territorial Sea
- Exclusive Economic Zone
- Continental Shelf Limit
- U.S. Contiguous Zone
U.S. Seabed and Subsoil Boundaries
These federal and state boundaries implement the Submerged Lands Act (43 U.S.C. Sect. 1301 et seq.) and Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. Sect. 1331 et seq.). The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is the implementing agency for these acts and their corresponding boundaries.
Other U.S. Marine Boundaries
Other federal U.S. boundaries in the marine environment are developed and maintained by various U.S. agencies, including the following:
Marine Managed Areas: Best Practices for Boundary Making
This handbook, written by the Federal Geographic Data Committee’s (FGDC) Marine Boundary Working Group and sponsored by the National Marine Protected Areas Center, represents the current best practices for marine boundary delimitation.