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States with a maritime coastline also have sovereignty over maritime areas. Since 1982 and the Montego Bay Treaty on the Law of the Sea, states have enjoyed national sovereignty over marine spaces. This treaty identifies several categories of maritime zones with varying degrees of sovereignty: internal waters, territorial sea, exclusive economic zone, and the continental shelf beyond *** miles.
Despite its modest land area, France has the second largest maritime space in the world, just behind the United States but far ahead of Russia or China. This is mainly due to its overseas territories, which give France such an extensive marine territory, notably French Polynesia, where its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends over more than *** million square kilometers, more than eight times the land area of metropolitan France. This EEZ extends over *** nautical miles from the coastal baseline, where the French state exercises sovereign rights over the exploration and use of natural resources, including fisheries, minerals, and hydrocarbons.