This datalayer is polygon shapefile representing the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) for the continental United States as defined by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Coast Survey. It was derived from NOAA polyline datasets representing the EEZ boundary for the East Coast, West Coast, and Gulf of Mexico. The Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 established a fishery conservation zone contiguous to the territorial sea of the United States, effective March 1, 1977. The outer boundary of the zone is a line drawn in such a manner that each point on it is 200-nautical miles from the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. The EEZ was established by Presidential Proclamation, effective March 10, 1983. For information about other U.S. maritime boundaries, please go to http://nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/csdl/mbound.htm.