Who Owns the Ocean? The Scoop on International Waters

Once upon a time, it paid to have really kick-butt cannons. That’s because the standards of the day (think 17th century give or take a couple hundred years) called for countries to maintain dominion over the oceans extending from their coastlines as far as they could defend them.

No, hopping in boats and sailing a few hundred miles offshore didn’t count for this definition of “defending” your territorial waters. We’re talking defense from the beach by using big guns, like cannons.

Cannon Fodder

At the time, about as far as anyone could lob a big iron ball was about three miles at the high end. As a result, most nations agreed on a de facto standard of three miles. That is, the country in question “owned” and controlled the waters extending from the beach to a distance of three miles into the ocean.

As warmongers will invariably do, enterprising ballistic scientists didn’t idle around being satisfied with wimpy three-mile cannons. By the 1880s, Sir William Armstrong and his 40-foot cannon achieved a range of about eight miles. And that monster lobbed a shell weighing about the same as a two-seat SMART Car. By World War I, the German Paris Gun attained a range of somewhere around 81 miles.

Rethinking Water Borders

Clearly, it was time to rethink the whole three mile domain concept defining international waters.

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, wrapping up in 1982, established a new set of guidelines voluntarily accepted by most, but not all, nations. The plan creates three zones of “territorial” waters extending from the shoreline as follows.

Territorial Sea: This is a coastal nation’s waterfront lawn so to speak. It extends 12 miles to sea and is considered sovereign to the nation in question. It is customary, and polite, for countries to allow innocent passage through these waters.

Contiguous Zone: A nation’s laws regarding customs, taxation, pollution and immigration can extend out to 24 miles in this zone. Again, peaceful passage is permitted, unless the coastal nation in question is a real jerk.

Exclusive Economic Zone: This band extends 200 miles into the ocean from the shoreline. Its purpose is to “reserve” natural resources for exploitation by the coastal nation.

As for everything else, it’s the “high seas” and beyond national control and authority. But, as with most things, the navy with the biggest ships sets the rules out there.

Low Tide

In case you’re wondering, the starting point when counting miles out to sea begins with the low water mark, so that extra 50 or 100 feet of beach counts!