Federal and State Maritime Jurisdiction Boundaries for U.S. Coastal Waters

September 2013 maritime limits update provides geographic boundaries for federal and state waters, including the 200nm Exclusive Economic Zone, for visual representation in MarineCadastre.gov. The dataset delineates jurisdictional areas based on legislation like the Submerged Lands Act, with approximations for regions including Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington. Data is projected in WGS_1984_World_Mercator, with area calculations for Alaska performed in a different coordinate system.

Use Cases

• Map federal and state jurisdictional boundaries for marine spatial planning using the delineated Exclusive Economic Zone and Outer Continental Shelf limits.
• Analyze approximate boundary placements for specific regions like Navassa Island or the Northern Mariana Islands, where legal boundaries are not represented.
• Calculate area statistics for state waters, leveraging the Alaska Albers Equal Area Conic projection used for Alaska's calculations.
• Integrate maritime limits with coastal geometry data to model ambulatory boundaries subject to coastline changes.

Strengths

• Based on authoritative legislation including the Submerged Lands Act and the 2006 Federal Outer Continental Shelf Administrative Boundaries.
• Provides nationwide coverage for U.S. coastal waters, including territories and islands.
• Uses defined coordinate systems (WGS_1984_World_Mercator and Alaska Albers Equal Area Conic) for spatial consistency.

Limitations

• Boundaries are approximations for visual purposes only and do not represent legal boundaries, especially for numerous U.S. islands and territories.
• Data is based on a September 2013 update; maritime limits are ambulatory and may have been revised since publication.
• Some boundary delineations, including for Hawaii, Alaska, and Washington, are explicitly noted as approximated.

Provenance

Source

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce.

Collection Method

Boundaries extrapolated from Federal Outer Continental Shelf Administrative Boundaries and legislation, approximated for display.

Time Range

Based on maritime limits published in September 2013.

Freshness

Last updated 2025-05-22, but the underlying maritime limits are from a September 2013 update.

Geography

United States coastal waters, Exclusive Economic Zone, and territories.