Exclusive Economic Zone

An Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is a sea zone under UNCLOS where a coastal state has sovereign rights to explore and exploit natural resources within 200 nautical miles (370km) of its coast. Unlike territorial waters (12nm), other nations ships may freely navigate through EEZs.

Largest EEZs: USA (11.35M km2), France (10.72M km2), Australia (8.58M km2). France ranks 2nd due to numerous overseas territories in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Japan EEZ is about 4.47M km2 (world 6th), roughly 12 times its land area.

An EEZ over 10x the land area suggests island nations or countries with many overseas territories. Pacific micro-nations (Kiribati, Micronesia) have enormous EEZs relative to their tiny land areas.