How far out to sea is considered international waters?

Answer 1

for the U.S. it's 3 miles to open water...

Answer 2

It used to be 3 nautical miles, but in 1978 the International Law of the Sea extended territorial waters out to 12 nautical miles and the Exclusive Economic Zone to 200 nautical miles. For some purposes like interdiction of illegal immigrants you're allowed to board vessels out to 24 nautical miles. With all these limits, if there's another country nearby, the border is at the halfway point. So in the Bering Straits, where Big Diomede island (Russia) and Little Diomede (US) are 3 miles apart, the Russian and American border is halfway between the two. In the North Sea, most of the water is international and ships of any nation can move freely, but the British and Norwegian oilfields are contiguous, because the coasts are less than 400 miles apart.

Answer 3

Depends. For most purposes, either 3 miles or 6 miles, but for control of things like fishing rights, control has been extended to as much as 200 miles.

Answer 4

Since I see no answers yet can I take a guess? Thanks..12 miles from shore starts international waters.If I'm wrong I apologize.

Answer 5

3 miles

Answer 6

I always thought it was 10 miles off of any coast in the US

Answer 7

it depends on what country your talking about. the US observers a 7 mile line. but i think they were talking about changing it to 50 miles. (23yrs ago when i was in the USN.)

Answer 8

That depends on how good you are at Math!

Answer 9

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_waters

see if this helps