Meredith Westington, NOAA National Ocean Service, Office of Coast ...

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Mouths of Rivers and Bays• ARTICLE 9: If a river flows directly into the sea, the baselineshall be a straight line across the mouth of the river betweenpoints on the low-water line of its banks.• ARTICLE 10: To qualify as a bay, the area must be a wellmarkedindentation--– The area of the bay must beequal to or greater than thearea of a semi-circle whosediameter is a line drawn acrossthe mouth of the indentation.River Closing LineSnapshot of chart 16300, 8 th edition• The line drawn across the naturalentrance points of the bay must notexceed 24 nautical miles in length.Bay Closing LinesSnapshot of chart 17320, 15 th edition

Ports: Article 11• The outermostpermanentharbor workswhich form anintegral part ofthe harborsystem areregarded asforming part ofthe coast.• Offshoreinstallations andartificial islandsare notconsideredpermanentharbor works.Shark River Inlet and vicinity, New Jersey

Low-tide Elevations: Article 13• A naturally formed area of land which is surrounded by andabove water at low tide but submerged at high tide.• If a low-tide elevation issituated within theterritorial sea asmeasured from themainland or an island, thefeature may be used toextend the territorial sea.

Iterations Normal Baseline of the National Features Baseline andImpacts on the Territorial SeaTerritorial Sea Internal Waters Contributing Baseline PointsSimple low-water line + bay and river closing lines + port features (2 jetties) + low-tide elevationsSample envelope ofarcs calculation off of CAUsing Caris’ LOTS

Availability on the WebExclusive Economic Zonehttp://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/eez.htmAvailable in shp and dbf formatsCredit: FWCCreated from CARIS software and provided in shapefile formatMaritime Limits for Three Nautical Mile Line, 9nm Natural ResourcesBoundary, Territorial Sea, and Contiguous Zonehttp://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/mbound.htm

ENC: Territorial Sea at FL (West)RNC Note:ENC TESARE (DRAFT)Coverage area will be from 0 to12 nautical miles,including closing lines across bays, rivers, andharbors.INFORM = The Territorial Sea is a maritimezone over which the United States exercisessovereignty and jurisdiction, extending tothe subsoil, bed, waters and airspace overthe waters. Presidential Proclamation No.5928 (1988).

Territorial Sea Area: TESAREInner Limit of TESAREblack dashed lineCOLREGS demarcation linesmagenta dashed line

Who Cares?• Department of State and Department of Justice (and NOAAFisheries Enforcement)- respond to enforcement actionsagainst foreign-flagged vessels based on charted EEZ andmaritime boundaries as well as unilateral claims• Environmental Protection Agency- Clean Water Act and OilPollution Act of 1990• Minerals Management Service- use baseline (including chartsand surveys) and EEZ for seabed leasing• State Governments- charted limits are used to enforce certainState laws (CA example)• Others

Additional Information• Get more info and download digital files of the maritime zones athttp://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/mbound.htm• Exclusive Economic Zone-- http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/EEZ.htm• Three Nautical Mile Line, 9nm Natural Resources Boundary, Territorial Sea, andContiguous Zone-- http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/limits.html• Download latest edition nautical charts– Raster Nautical Charts (online viewer)--http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/OnLineViewer.html/– Electronic Navigational Charts-- http://www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/mcd/enc/index.htm• Citation for EEZ and Maritime Boundaries– Federal Register, Vol. 60, No. 163, August 23, 1995, "Exclusive Economic Zone andMaritime Boundaries: Notice of Limits,” pp. 43825-43829