Which country has the largest Exclusive Economic Zone in the world? Firstly, let's get some context.
The law of the sea, which is a collection of international treaties, customs, and agreements, Which maintain order and peaceful relations on sea, split the area in front of every country's coastline into 3 distinct zones.
Chapter 1: What is an EEZ The first 12 nautical miles, which equates to roughly 22 kilometers or 14 miles, are a countries territorial waters.
This means that the country which owns the land, has full sovereignty over all aspects of these waters. The next 12 nautical miles are called the Continuous Zone.
While this zone is already considered international waters, the governing coastal country is permitted under the law of sea, to exert power in the case of criminal activities such as smuggling or illegal immigration.
The right of passage, however, must be granted to all innocent vessels.
The 176 nautical miles beyond this line are considered a country's exclusive economic zone, or EEZ in short.
In this zone, the surface is considered international waters, meaning that any vessel can freely traverse it, But the right to extract resources such as fish, fossil fuels, or the generation of energy from for example wind turbines lays exclusively with the coastal country that has a claim on the land next to it.
If the 200 nautical mile claim of 2 countries intersect, like in the example of Sumatra which belongs to Indonesia, and mainland Malaysia, the EEZ borders meet halfway.
Since the extend of a country's EEZ is strongly connected to the length of a country's coastline, It is easy to assume that countries like Australia, Brazil or Russia have the largest EEZ.
