Two global GIS-covers in ESRI shape format were produced: one contains polylines representing the maritime boundaries;the second holds polygons representing the EEZs. When all the boundary lines were constructed, the lines could be aggregated and an EEZ-polygon per country was derived. For the land-side border, the boundaries of the world countries were used, on the sea-side the boundaries were aggregated for each country. Separate polygons were created for islands (ex.: Azores) and dependencies (ex.: Réunion) but those polygons are linked with their corresponding sovereign nation (in the attribute table).

World maritime boundaries at 1:10 million scale.

Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com.

description: NOAA is responsible for depicting on its nautical charts the limits of the 12 nautical mile Territorial Sea, 24 nautical mile Contiguous Zone, and 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The outer limit of each of these zones is measured from the U.S. normal baseline, which coincides with the low water line depicted on NOAA charts and includes closing lines across the entrances of legal bays and rivers, consistent with international law. The U.S. baseline and associated maritime limits are reviewed and approved through the interagency U.S. Baseline Committee, which is chaired by the U.S. Department of State. The Committee serves the function of gaining 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 that is permitted by international law. In 2002 and in response to mounting requests for digital maritime zones, NOAA launched a project to re-evaluate the U.S. baseline in partnership with other federal agencies via the U.S. Baseline Committee. The focus of the baseline evaluation was NOAA's largest scale, most recent edition nautical charts as well as supplemental source materials for verification of certain charted features. This dataset is a result of the 2002-present initiative and reflects a multi-year iterative project whereby the baseline and associated maritime limits were re-evaluated on a state or regional basis. In addition to the U.S. maritime limits, the U.S. maritime boundaries with opposite or adjacent countries as well as the US/Canada International Boundary (on land and through the Great Lakes) are also included in this dataset.; abstract: NOAA is responsible for depicting on its nautical charts the limits of the 12 nautical mile Territorial Sea, 24 nautical mile Contiguous Zone, and 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The outer limit of each of these zones is measured from the U.S. normal baseline, which coincides with the low water line depicted on NOAA charts and includes closing lines across the entrances of legal bays and rivers, consistent with international law. The U.S. baseline and associated maritime limits are reviewed and approved through the interagency U.S. Baseline Committee, which is chaired by the U.S. Department of State. The Committee serves the function of gaining 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 that is permitted by international law. In 2002 and in response to mounting requests for digital maritime zones, NOAA launched a project to re-evaluate the U.S. baseline in partnership with other federal agencies via the U.S. Baseline Committee. The focus of the baseline evaluation was NOAA's largest scale, most recent edition nautical charts as well as supplemental source materials for verification of certain charted features. This dataset is a result of the 2002-present initiative and reflects a multi-year iterative project whereby the baseline and associated maritime limits were re-evaluated on a state or regional basis. In addition to the U.S. maritime limits, the U.S. maritime boundaries with opposite or adjacent countries as well as the US/Canada International Boundary (on land and through the Great Lakes) are also included in this dataset.

An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a sea zone prescribed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a sovereign state has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind. This maritime boundary is designed to be used with other marine boundaries in order to help determine areas of trade, commerce and transportation. The 200 NM zone is measured country-by-country from the baseline maritime boundary (usually, but not in all cases, the mean low-water mark used is not the same thing as the coast line). For each country, we've obtained the official list of the baseline points from the United Nations under Maritime Space.The exclusive economic zone stretches much farther into sea than the territorial waters, which end at 12 NM (22 km) from the coastal baseline (if following the rules set out in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea). Thus, the EEZ includes the contiguous zone. States also have rights to the seabed of what is called the continental shelf up to 350 NM (648 km) from the coastal baseline, beyond the EEZ, but such areas are not part of their EEZ. The legal definition of the continental shelf does not directly correspond to the geological meaning of the term, as it also includes the continental rise and slope, and the entire seabed within the EEZ. The chart below diagrams the overlapping jurisdictions which are part of the EEZ. When the (EEZ) boundary is between countries which are separated by less than 200NM is settled by international tribunals at any arbitrary line. Many countries are still in the process of extending their EEZs beyond 200NM using criteria defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Dataset Summary The data for this layer were obtained from https://www.marineregions.org/. Link to source metadata.Preferred Citation: VLIZ (2014). Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase, version 8. Available online at http://www.marineregions.org/. Consulted on 2015-03-28.These limits and boundaries were created for NOAA's internal purposes only to update the charted maritime limits and maritime boundaries on NOAA charts. These limits and boundaries do not represent the official depiction. For official depiction, please see NOAA's paper or raster nautical charts (Sourced from NOAA_Version 4.1, 9/10/2013). Also, this map service contains data from NOAA and BOEM sources and the VLIZ (2014) Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase, version 8. Available online at Marineregions.org. Consulted on 2014-12-02.What can you do with this layer?Within its EEZ, a coastal country has: (a) sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving and managing natural resources, whether living or 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 for 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.The features in this layer can be used for showing areas and limits of sovereignty, revenue sharing, for siting a renewable energy project, for commerce routes, and for vessel transportation tracking within ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS Online. An example application of the layers is listed below, from the Marine Cadastre site. If, by example, a renewable energy project is located within state waters, the rules of leasing for that particular state will apply (and therefore vary by state), and no revenues will go to the federal government.If any portion of the project location falls within the federal 8(g) zone, then 27 percent of the revenues collected by the federal government will be shared with those states whose coastlines are within 15 miles of the geographic center of the project area. If the shoreline of more than one state is within 15 miles of the geographic center of the project, all the states will share the revenue payments in proportion to the inverse distance of the nearest points of their respective coastlines to the geographic center of the project. See more on this topic at U.S.C. and C.F.R. If the location is entirely in federal waters seaward of the 8(g) zone, no collected revenues will go to the state(s).This layer is a feature service, which means it can be used for visualization and analysis throughout the ArcGIS Platform. This layer is not editable.

The maritime limits and boundaries of the U.S., found in the A-16 National Geospatial Data Asset Portfolio, is recognized as the low-water line along the coast measured from the U.S. baseline. This is marked on official U.S. nautical charts in accordance with the articles of the Law of the Sea. The baseline and related maritime limits are reviewed and approved by the inter-agency U.S. Baseline Committee.The primary purpose of this data is to update the official depiction of these maritime limits and boundaries on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's nautical charts. The Office of Coast Survey depicts on its nautical charts the territorial sea (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone (24 nautical miles), and Exclusive Economic Zone (200 nautical miles, plus maritime boundaries with adjacent/opposite countries). U.S. maritime limits are ambulatory and are subject to revision based on accretion or erosion of the charted low-water line. For more information about U.S. maritime limits and boundaries and to download data, see U.S. Maritime Limits & Boundaries. For the full Federal Geographic Data Committee metadata record, see Maritime Limits and Boundaries of United States of America.Thumbnail source image courtesy of: David Restivo

This is a global dataset containing maritime boundaries derived fromt the VLIZ Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase. The concept of maritime boundaries is a relative new concept. Coastal states now want to delimit an area in the ocean where they have exclusive rights over the mineral and biological resources. The basis for the calculation of maritime boundaries is the declaration of a baseline. The conditions under which a state may establish such baseline are described in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). A baseline of a country can be the low water line, a straight baseline (a line that encloses bays, estuaries, inland waters,...) or a combination of the two. The zone extending 12 Nautical Miles from the baseline is the Territorial Sea and the zone extending 24 Nautical Miles is the Contiguous Zone of a country. The legal Exclusive Economic Zone is the zone extending 200 Nautical Miles from the baseline. When the space between two countries is less than 400 Nautical Miles, the boundary should be the Median Line or should be described in a multilateral treaty. Multilateral treaties and documents describing the baselines of countries can be found on the website of the United Nations (http://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/regionslist.htm). Those documents were a major source for the development of the database.

The maritime borders dataset contains the seaward boundaries of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), the territorial sea and the baselines. They are condensed coordinates of the maritime border maps 2920 (North Sea) and 2921 (Baltic Sea). They are coordinates compressed (interpolated) to geodetic lines. The distance of the nodes on the geodetic connecting lines of the defined boundary points is less than or equal to 100 m. The maritime borders of Germany were proclaimed in the today no more usual coordinate system "European date 1950 (ED50)". This definition is based in particular on the announcement of the Federal Government's proclamation of 19 October 1994 on the extension of the German territorial sea (BGBl. I p. 3428) and the Federal Republic of Germany's proclamation of 25 November 1994 on the establishment of an exclusive economic zone (BGBl. II p. 3769), which are decisive with regard to the demarcation of the German territorial sea and the German exclusive economic zone. In order to be able to better use these boundaries in today's GIS systems and to avoid conversion errors, the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency has derived the present usage coordinates in WGS 84. In this respect, they are not official maritime borders of Germany.

An exclusive economic zone extends from the outer limit of the territorial sea to a maximum of 200 nautical miles (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) from the territorial sea baseline, thus it includes the contiguous zone. A coastal nation has control of all economic resources within its exclusive economic zone, including fishing, mining, oil exploration, and any pollution of those resources. However, it cannot prohibit passage or loitering above, on, or under the surface of the sea that is in compliance with the laws and regulations adopted by the coastal State in accordance with the provisions of the UN Convention, within that portion of its exclusive economic zone beyond its territorial sea. Before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, coastal nations arbitrarily extended their territorial waters in an effort to control activities which are now regulated by the exclusive economic zone, such as offshore oil exploration or fishing rights (see Cod Wars). Indeed, the exclusive economic zone is still popularly, though erroneously, called a coastal nation's territorial waters. None

An exclusive economic zone extends from the outer limit of the territorial sea to a maximum of 200 nautical miles (370.4 km; 230.2 mi) from the territorial sea baseline, thus it includes the contiguous zone. A coastal nation has control of all economic resources within its exclusive economic zone, including fishing, mining, oil exploration, and any pollution of those resources. However, it cannot prohibit passage or loitering above, on, or under the surface of the sea that is in compliance with the laws and regulations adopted by the coastal State in accordance with the provisions of the UN Convention, within that portion of its exclusive economic zone beyond its territorial sea. Before the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, coastal nations arbitrarily extended their territorial waters in an effort to control activities which are now regulated by the exclusive economic zone, such as offshore oil exploration or fishing rights (see Cod Wars). Indeed, the exclusive economic zone is still popularly, though erroneously, called a coastal nation's territorial waters. None

Maritime limits for the United States are measured from the U.S. baseline, recognized as the low-water line along the coast as marked on NOAA's nautical charts in accordance with the articles of the Law of the Sea. The baseline and related maritime limits are reviewed and approved by the interagency U.S. Baseline Committee. The primary purpose of this dataset is to update the official depiction of these maritime limits and boundaries on NOAA's nautical charts. The Office of Coast Survey depicts on its nautical charts the territorial sea (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone (24nm), and exclusive economic zone (200nm, plus maritime boundaries with adjacent/opposite countries). U.S. maritime limits are ambulatory and subject to revision based on accretion or erosion of the charted low water line. To ensure you are up-to-date and for more information about U.S. Maritime Limits and Boundaries, see http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/mbound.htm.For the full FGDC metadata record, see http://www.ncddc.noaa.gov/approved_recs/nos_de/ocs/ocs/ocs/MB_ParentDataset.html.Coordinates for the US/Canada international boundary, on land and through the Great Lakes, are managed by the International Boundary Commission. These boundaries are included with this dataset for continuity.

(Version 4.0, 7/26/2013) Maritime limits for the United States are measured from the U.S. baseline, which is recognized as the low-water line along the coast as marked on the official U.S. nautical charts in accordance with the articles of the Law of the Sea. The baseline and related maritime limits are reviewed and approved by the interagency U.S. Baseline Committee. The primary purpose of this dataset is to update the official depiction of these maritime limits and boundaries on NOAA's nautical charts. The Office of Coast Survey depicts on its nautical charts the territorial sea (12 nautical miles), contiguous zone (24nm), and exclusive economic zone (200nm, plus maritime boundaries with adjacent/opposite countries). U.S. maritime limits are ambulatory and are subject to revision based on accretion or erosion of the charted low water line. For more information about U.S. Maritime Limits/Boundaries, and to download data, see: https://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/data/us-maritime-limits-and-boundaries.html For the full FGDC metadata record, see: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/39963

This dataset represents Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of the world. Up to now, there was no global public domain cover available. Therefore, the Flanders Marine Institute decided to develop its own database. The database includes two global GIS-layers: one contains polylines that represent the maritime boundaries of the world countries, the other one is a polygon layer representing the Exclusive Economic Zone of countries. The database also contains digital information about treaties.

Please note that the EEZ shapefile also includes the internal waters of each country

http://www.marineregions.org/eezmethodology.php

INSPIRE topic Maritime administrative units. These are condensed coordinates of the sea boundary maps 2920 (North Sea) and 2921 (Baltic Sea). They are coordinates condensed (interpolated) onto geodetic lines. The distance between the nodes on the geodetic connecting lines of the defined border points is less than or equal to 100 m. Germany's maritime borders were proclaimed in the European Datum 1950 (ED50) coordinate system, which is no longer common today. The basis for this determination is, in particular, the announcement of the Federal Government's proclamation on the expansion of the German territorial sea of ​​October 19, 1994 (BGBl. I p. 3428) and the Federal Republic of Germany's proclamation on the establishment of an exclusive economic zone of November 25, 1994 (BGBl. II p. 3769), which are relevant with regard to the delimitation of the German territorial sea and the German exclusive economic zone. In order to be able to use these limits better in today's GI systems and to avoid conversion errors, the BSH has derived the usage coordinates presented here in WGS 84. In this respect, they are not Germany's official maritime borders.

Contiguous Zones from the VLIZ Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase. The Contiguous Zone is a band of water extending from the outer edge of the territorial sea to up to 24 nautical miles (44.4 km; 27.6 mi) from the baseline. In the Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase, Marine Regions makes available most of the maritime areas defined in the Law of the Sea Convention: Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), Territorial Seas (TS), Contiguous Zones (CZ), Internal Waters (IW) and Archipelagic Waters (AW).

Territorial waters or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,[1] is a belt of coastal waters extending at most 12 nautical miles (22.2 km; 13.8 mi) from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it, or transit passage for straits; this sovereignty also extends to the airspace over and seabed below. Adjustment of these boundaries is called, in international law, maritime delimitation. The term "territorial waters" is also sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone and potentially the continental shelf. None

In June 2000 the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) under the auspices of the Department of Public Enterprise (later moved to the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources in 2002) awarded a contract to Global Ocean Technologies Limited (GOTECH) to undertake the Irish National Seabed Survey (INSS), Zone 3 Hydrographic Survey. This area, of some 413,760 square Kilometres, stretches from the 200 metre water depth line on the Western Seaboard of Ireland, westward into the full oceanic depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The INSS mapped to approximately the 200m contour. The project was completed in 2006.The INFOMAR programme is a joint venture between Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) and Marine Institute (MI) and is the successor to the Irish National Seabed Survey. INFOMAR aims to survey the remaining shelf and coastal waters between 2006 to 2026.It is a vector dataset. Vector data portrays the world using points, lines and polygons (areas). The zone data is shown as polygons. Each polygon holds information on the zone number, zone part, area (km2) and perimeter (m).The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. Articles 3 and 4 of UNCLOS sets out what a territorial sea is and what is permitted. Territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), is a belt of coastal waters extending at most 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi) from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it, or transit passage for straits; this sovereignty also extends to the airspace over and seabed below. Adjustment of these boundaries is called, in international law, maritime delimitation.A state's territorial sea extends up to 12 nm (22 km; 14 mi) from its baseline. A nautical mile is 1,852 metres. If this would overlap with another state's territorial sea, the border is taken as the median point between the states' baselines, unless the states in question agree otherwise. A state can also choose to claim a smaller territorial sea.It is a vector dataset. Vector data portrays the world using points, lines and polygons (areas). The data is shown as a line.The exclusive economic zone is an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, subject to the specific legal regime established in this Part, under which the rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State and the rights and freedoms of other States are governed by the relevant provisions of this Convention. An exclusive economic zone, as prescribed by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is an area of the sea in which a sovereign state has exclusive rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.It stretches from the outer limit of the territorial sea (22.224 Km or 12 NM from the baseline) out to a maximum of 370.4 Km (or 200 nautical miles) from the coast of the state in question. It is also referred to as a maritime continental margin and, in colloquial usage, may include the continental shelf. The term does not include either the territorial sea or the continental shelf beyond the 200 nautical mile limit. The difference between the territorial sea and the exclusive economic zone is that the first confers full sovereignty over the waters, whereas the second is merely a "sovereign right" which refers to the coastal state's rights below the surface of the sea. The surface waters are international waters.It is a vector dataset. Vector data portrays the world using points, lines and polygons (areas). The data is shown as a line.The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea Treaty, is an international agreement that establishes a legal framework for all marine and maritime activities. Article 76 of UNCLOS sets out the definition of what the continental shelf is and what is permitted. The Geoscience Regulatory Office (GSRO) (formerly Petroleum Affairs Division (PAD)) a division of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC) has statutory responsibility for Ireland’s Continental Shelf.A state wishing to extend its shelf beyond 200 nautical miles must make a submission to the Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf. Ireland’s continental shelf physically extends beyond 200 nautical miles to the west and south of the country and, working together, the Departments of Foreign Affairs and of the Environment, Climate and Communications have in all made three submissions to the Commission – in 2005 in relation to the Porcupine Abyssal Plain, then jointly with France, Spain and the UK for the seabed of the Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay, and finally for the Hatton Rockall area of the North East Atlantic in 2009.The submission concerning the Porcupine Abyssal Plain successfully resulted in the addition of 39,000 km² of seabed to the State’s continental shelf. The Commission has also made recommendations that would enclose an area of approx. 80,000 km² of seabed in the Celtic Sea and Bay of Biscay and the division of this area is currently under negotiation between the four countries concerned. In addition, regular discussions have taken place for a number of years between Ireland and the UK (who agreed continental shelf boundaries in 1988), Iceland and the Faroe Islands in relation to overlapping claims in the North East Atlantic.It is a vector dataset. Vector data portrays the world using points, lines and polygons (areas). The data is shown as a line.

Beyond the 12-nautical-mile (22 km) limit, there is a further 12 nautical miles (22 km) from the territorial sea baseline limit, the contiguous zone, in which a state can continue to enforce laws in four specific areas: customs, taxation, immigration and pollution, if the infringement started within the state's territory or territorial waters, or if this infringement is about to occur within the state's territory or territorial waters. None

INSPIRE topic Maritime administrative units. These are condensed coordinates of the sea boundary maps 2920 (North Sea) and 2921 (Baltic Sea). They are coordinates condensed (interpolated) onto geodetic lines. The distance between the nodes on the geodetic connecting lines of the defined border points is less than or equal to 100 m. Germany's maritime borders were proclaimed in the European Datum 1950 (ED50) coordinate system, which is no longer common today. The basis for this determination is, in particular, the announcement of the Federal Government's proclamation on the expansion of the German territorial sea of ​​October 19, 1994 (BGBl. I p. 3428) and the Federal Republic of Germany's proclamation on the establishment of an exclusive economic zone of November 25, 1994 (BGBl. II p. 3769), which are relevant with regard to the delimitation of the German territorial sea and the German exclusive economic zone. In order to be able to use these limits better in today's GI systems and to avoid conversion errors, the BSH has derived the usage coordinates presented here in WGS 84. In this respect, they are not Germany's official maritime borders.

Marine Regions is an integration of the VLIMAR Gazetteer and the VLIZ Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase. The VLIMAR Gazetteer is a database with geographic, mainly marine names such as seas, sandbanks, seamounts, ridges, bays or even standard sampling stations used in marine research. The geographic cover of the VLIMAR gazetteer is global but initially focused on the Belgian Continental Shelf and the Scheldt Estuary and the Southern Bight of the North Sea. Gradually more regional and global geographic information was added to VLIMAR and combining this information with the Maritime Boundaries database, representing the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the world, led to the creation of marineregions.org. Marine Regions is managed by the Flanders Marine Institute. Funding for the creation of the VLIMAR gazetteer was provided initially through the EU Network of Excellence MarBEF, but also other European initiatives such as Lifewatch provide the necessary funding for the maintenance and management of Marine Regions. Marine Regions depends on data and knowledge sharing from global, European, regional and national data providers and relevant experts. By setting up Collaboration Agreements, data providers will benefit from belonging to the Marine Regions partnership as they would get increased visibility, gain access to a variety of data analysis services which will benefit from integration of several distributed spatial datasets, as well as enjoying the benefit of the creation of stable unique identifiers. An example template of a Collaboration Agreement can be found here. Please contact info@marineregions.org if your organisation is interested in exploring this collaboration.

The primary purpose of this dataset is to update the official depiction of these maritime zones and maritime boundaries on NOAA's nautical charts. The limits of these zones are subject to modification, as represented on future charts. The limits shown on the most recent chart edition take precedence. NOAA is responsible for depicting on its nautical charts the limits of the 12 nautical mile Territorial Sea, 24 nautical mile Contiguous Zone, and 200 nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The outer limit of each of these zones is measured from the U.S. normal baseline, which coincides with the low water line depicted on NOAA charts and includes closing lines across the entrances of legal bays and rivers, consistent with international law. The U.S. baseline and associated maritime limits are reviewed and approved through the interagency U.S. Baseline Committee, which is chaired by the U.S. Department of State. The Committee serves the function of gaining 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 that is permitted by international law. In 2002 and in response to mounting requests for digital maritime zones, NOAA launched a project to re-evaluate the U.S. baseline in partnership with other federal agencies via the U.S. Baseline Committee. The focus of the baseline evaluation was NOAA's largest scale, most recent edition nautical charts as well as supplemental source materials for verification of certain charted features. This dataset is a result of the 2002-present initiative and reflects a multi-year iterative project whereby the baseline and associated maritime limits were re-evaluated on a state or regional basis. In addition to the U.S. maritime limits, the U.S. maritime boundaries with opposite or adjacent countries as well as the US/Canada International Boundary (on land and through the Great Lakes) are also included in this dataset.View Dataset on the Gateway