Access Digital Data
Static Data Downloads: ESRI shapefile and KML (Date Updated: 12/28/2011)
To view ESRI shapefile, you might need ArcGIS Explorer. To view KML, you might need Google Earth.
Dynamic Web Map Service (WMS)
All Layers in one dataset: http://stingray.ncd.noaa.gov/geoserver-dev/maritime_boundaries/wms
Individual layers: http://stingray.ncd.noaa.gov/geoserver-dev/maritime_boundaries_layers/wms
A Web Map Service (WMS) is a standard protocol for serving georeferenced map images over the Internet. WMS can be consumed by web application or through GIS software such as ArcGIS 10 and Quantum GIS.
Metadata: Text, HTML, XML
Latest News (top)
Between 2002-2010, the U.S. Baseline Committee re-evaluated the U.S. baseline and maritime limits depicted on NOAA charts in order to create a digital dataset. The Office of Coast Survey published state/regional maritime limits, including the 200nm EEZ and U.S. maritime boundaries with opposite or adjacent countries, in ESRI Shapefile format. Beginning in 2011, Coast Survey merged the state/regional limits to a single, seamless U.S. maritime limits and boundaries dataset. To provide full coverage of U.S. jurisdiction through the Great Lakes, Coast Survey also included the US/Canada International Boundary. The previously published, individual state/regional data files as well as metadata are no longer available; however, Coast Survey has retained background information in the form of supplemental information, which can be obtained through the attribute table of the new, seamless dataset.
Bookmark this site, as we will frequently update the dataset with new digital limits of the maritime zones. U.S. maritime limits are ambulatory and subject to revision based on accretion or erosion of the charted low water line. Official limits are superseded by the publication of a new chart edition.
As of May 27, 2011, the digital data and metadata are on version 1. Due to recent chart datum revisions, maritime limits for American Samoa are pending Baseline Committee review and approval. The limits will appear in version 2.
More Information about U.S. Maritime Zones (top)
The U.S. maritime zones are projected from a “normal baseline” derived from NOAA nautical charts. A “normal baseline” (as defined in the 1958 Geneva Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone and Article 5 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) is the low-water line along the coast as marked on officially recognized, large-scale charts. Since "low-water line" does not reference a specific tidal datum, the U.S. applies the term to reference the lowest charted datum, which is mean lower low water (MLLW).
The U.S. Baseline Committee reviews and approves the limit of all maritime zones on NOAA charts. It gains interagency consensus on the proper location of the baseline, using the provisions of the 1958 Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, to ensure that the seaward extent of U.S. maritime zones do not exceed the breadth permitted by international law. Current members of the Committee include the Departments of State (Chair), Commerce (NOAA), Justice, Interior (BOEMRE), and Homeland Security (Coast Guard), among others.
Additional Information
Download Maritime Limits White Paper
U.S. Maritime Zones Description in the Coast Pilot (pp. 32-34)
U.S. Maritime Boundary Treaties from Department of State
More Information about U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (top)
The exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of the U.S. extends 200 nm from the territorial sea baseline and is adjacent to the 12 nm territorial sea of the U.S. It includes the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; Guam; American Samoa; U.S. Virgin Islands; Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; and any other territory or possession over which the United States exercises sovereignty. Within the EEZ, the U.S. has:
(a) sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing natural resources, whether living and nonliving, of the seabed and subsoil and the superjacent waters and with regard to other activities for the economic exploitation and exploration of the zone, such as the production of energy from the water, currents and winds;
(b) jurisdiction as provided in international law with regard to the establishment and use of artificial islands, installations, and structures, marine scientific research, and the protection and preservation of the marine environment; and
(c) other rights and duties provided for under international law.
(
See Presidential Proclamation No. 5030, March 10, 1983.)
Certain U.S. fisheries laws use the term “exclusive economic zone” (“EEZ”). While its outer limit is the same as the EEZ on NOAA charts, the inner limit generally extends landward to the seaward boundary of the coastal states of the U.S. For the seaward limit of the states jurisdiction under the Submerged Lands Act, please see “GIS Data / Shapefiles” at
http://www.boem.gov/Oil-and-Gas-Energy-Program/Mapping-and-Data/Index.aspx.
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