Territorial waters
Coastal waters that are part of a sovereign state's sovereign territory / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Territorial waters are informally an area of water where a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potentially the extended continental shelf (these components are sometimes collectively called the maritime zones[1]). In a narrower sense, the term is often used as a synonym for the territorial sea.[2]
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"Maritime zone" redirects here. For a military exclusion zone, see Maritime Exclusion Zone.
Vessels have different rights and duties when passing through each area defined by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), one of the most ratified treaties. States cannot exercise their jurisdiction in waters beyond the exclusive economic zone, which are known as the high seas.[3]