Digital Maritime Zones and National Baseline on NOAA’s Nautical Charts Meredith Westington NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey Exclusive Economic Zone Three Nautical Mile Line Territorial Sea Snapshot of chart 18740, 40th edition Contiguous Zone (shown at 12nm prior to 1999)

Territorial Sea Area of sovereignty Innocent passage Outer extent moved from 3 to 12 nautical miles through Presidential Proclamation in 1988 Territorial Sea Snapshot of chart 18740, 40th edition

Contiguous Zone Zone is contiguous to the territorial sea Coastal state can exercise control necessary to protect infringement of the following regulations: Customs Fiscal Immigration Sanitary Outer extent moved from 12 to 24 nautical miles through Presidential Proclamation in 1999 Contiguous Zone (shown at 12nm prior to 1999) Snapshot of chart 18740, 40th edition

Exclusive Economic Zone Zone is contiguous to the territorial sea Outer limit cannot exceed 200 nautical miles from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured Sovereign rights and jurisdiction over EEZ resources and activities Respect rights of navigation and over flight consistent with international law EEZ declared through Presidential Proclamation in 1983 EEZ (maritime boundary with Mexico) Snapshot of chart 18740, 40th edition

Three Nautical Mile Line Outer limit of the territorial sea prior to 1988 Presidential Proclamation Ambulatory line projected 3 nautical miles from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured Not necessarily the same as the Submerged Lands Act federal/state boundary Used for federal fisheries, water quality, and other laws or regulations May be used by U.S. states to regulate laws Three Nautical Mile Line Snapshot of chart 18740, 40th edition

Law of the Sea Guidelines for delimiting the maritime zones Articles set forth criteria for determining the “baseline”

Normal Baseline Contributing Baseline Points Low-water line along the coast as marked on large-scale, officially recognized charts.

U.S. Baseline Committee Created: August 7, 1970 Purpose: To provide an interagency forum to discuss and make determinations on all questions relating to the official delimitation of the U.S. Coastline Chaired by the Department of State with representatives from Department of Commerce (NOAA) Department of Justice Department of Interior (MMS, FWS) Department of Homeland Security (USCG) Department of Navy Department of Defense (NGA) Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Federal Communications Commission

Evaluating the Baseline Low-tide elevations- naturally formed features must be dry at low tide (Article 13) Permanent harborworks- features must form an integral part of the harbor system (no artificial islands- Article 11) Bay closing lines- well-marked indentations of the land that meet several tests can be closed with a straight line (normal baseline only- Article 10)

3nm Line drawn from baseline with jetty Baseline vs Coastline 3nm Line without jetty 3nm Line drawn from baseline with jetty

Caris’ Law of the Sea: Limits & Boundaries Envelope of Arcs To retrieve the contributing baseline points and limit line (ex. Gardner Pinnacles, NWHI) Vector LWL Contributing Baseline Points THREE NAUTICAL MILE LIMIT

Updates to Paper/Raster Nautical Charts THEN- Territorial Sea and Contiguous Zone are both projected 12 nautical miles from baseline NOW- Territorial Sea at 12 nautical miles and Contiguous Zone at 24 nautical miles from baseline

Availability on the Web http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/eez.htm EEZ is Available Now! Available in shp and dbf formats Credit: FWC Created from CARIS software and provided in shapefile format NEW Maritime Limits Website! http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/mbound.htm

NOAA Electronic Navigational Charts ENC equivalent to chart 11363 (Louisiana) The area covered by an NOAA ENC is referred to as a "cell." At present, each NOAA ENC cell corresponds to the largest scale paper chart in a given area. As the NOAA ENC begins to contain more detail and the file sizes get larger, it may become necessary to split the cells into smaller areas ENC equivalent to chart 11353 Created in dKart’s dkLook (free chart viewer)

Two Methods of downloading ENCs for Navigation ENCs: Free Internet Download http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/download.htm Two Methods of downloading ENCs for Navigation

Territorial Sea in ENCs: Depiction of Zone at West Coast of Florida

Territorial Sea in ENCs: Depiction of Inner Limit at West Coast of Florida ENC Symbology for COLREGS demarcation line – magenta dashed line ENC Symbology for “Territorial Sea Area” – black dashed line

Exclusive Economic Zone Summary ENC downloads http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/download.htm Exclusive Economic Zone http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/eez.htm Maritime Limits http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/mbound.htm