4 • Marine Minerals: Exploring Our New Ocean Frontier 



Figure 1-1.— The Ocean Zones, Including the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) 





The Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends 200 nautical miles from the coast. Within the EEZ, the coastal States have jurisdiction 

 over the resources in the 3-mile territorial sea*, and the Federal Government has jurisdiction over the resources in the remaining 

 197 miles. 



'Except for Florida and Texas where State jurisdiction extends seaward 3 marine leagues {approximately 9 miles). 



SOURCE: B. McGregor and M. Lockwood, Mapping and Research in the Exclusive Economic Zone (Washington, DC: U.S. Geological Survey and the National Oceanic 

 and Atmospheric Administration, 1985), p. 3. 



far declined to sign the agreement, the legal status 

 of the U.S. EEZ is not in question. Like the EEZs 

 of most other countries, the U.S. EEZ remains 

 largely unexplored. It is the Nation's ocean frontier. 



This assessment addresses the exploration and 

 development of the U.S. territorial sea, continen- 

 tal shelf, and new EEZ, focusing on the mineral 

 resource potential of these areas except for petro- 

 leum and sulfur. The known mineral deposits 

 within U.S. waters are described; the capabilities 

 to explore for and develop ocean mineral resources 

 are evaluated; the economics of resource exploita- 

 tion are estimated; the environmental implications 

 related to seabed mining are studied; the contri- 

 bution that seabed minerals may make to the Na- 

 tion's resource base are examined; and the impor- 

 tance of seabed minerals relative to worldwide 

 demand and to land-based sources of supply is 

 assessed. 



Unlike the sovereign control that governments 

 have traditionally exercised over their territorial 



possessions, control over the ocean and the utili- 

 zation of its resources has been accommodated 

 through intricate rules of international maritime law 

 that have evolved since the 1600s. The Exclusive 

 Economic Zone is an outgrowth of the Law of the 

 Sea Convention — the most recent international ef- 

 fort to develop a more comprehensive law of the sea. 



Within its EEZ, the United States claims "sover- 

 eign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploit- 

 ing, conserving and managing natural resources, 

 both living and non-living, of the seabed and sub- 

 soil and the superjacent waters."* Each of the U.S. 

 coastal States retains jurisdiction over similar re- 

 sources within the U.S. territorial sea, a 3-nautical- 

 mile band seaward of the coast, that was awarded 

 to the States by Congress in the Submerged Lands 

 Act of 1953.^ The interests of the coastal States in 

 the 3-mile territorial sea and the responsibilities of 

 the Federal Government in the administration of 



♦Executive Proclamation No. 5030 (1983). 



^Public Law 83-31; 67 Stat. 29 (1953); 43 U.S.C. 1301-1315, 



