Consider territorial seas <12NM [MR-197]

[lawrencewhatley]

Item
Flanders Marine Institute (2023). Maritime Boundaries Geodatabase: Maritime Boundaries and Exclusive Economic Zones (200NM), version 12. Available online at https://www.marineregions.org/

Description
Territorial waters can extend to a maximum of 12 nautical miles (but they can be narrower too). Whether a coastal state claims territorial waters up to 12NM or smaller (such as Greenland, which has 3NM wide Territorial waters), can be also found at the UN repository: http://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/regionslist.htm

You can also find a shapefile for Territorial Waters in our download page. At this stage, and for practical reasons, we have assumed 12NM territorial seas for all the coastal states. This means you won't find a 3NM polygon for Greenland.

-> should we adjust our territorial seas where coastal states claim less than 12 NM?

[lawrencewhatley]

(Incomplete, to be investigated) list of states/territories claiming <12NM territorial sea:

• Australia (3NM, only some Torres Strait islands): https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/TREATIES/AUS-PNG1978TS.PDF
• Greece (6NM): https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/GRC_1936_Law.pdf
• Greenland (3NM): https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/DNK_1963_Order.pdf
• Jordan (3NM): https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/JOR_1943_Act.pdf
• Montserrat (3NM): need a source (https://www.waittinstitute.org/_files/ugd/47d1fd_f21f345b8814496babf603ae91956e96.pdf, https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.158)
• South Korea (3NM in Korea Strait only): https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/Enforcement_Decree_of_Territorial_Sea_and_Contiguous_Zone_Act_Presidential_Decree_No_24424_23_March_2013.pdf
• Turkey (6NM): https://www.un.org/Depts/los/LEGISLATIONANDTREATIES/PDFFILES/TUR_1982_Act.pdf