Publisher's Synopsis
Alaska's location makes the United States an Arctic nation. Alaska has extensive maritime access, with over 6,000 miles of coastline, bordered by the Beaufort, Chukchi, and Bering Seas; the Arctic Ocean; the Gulf of Alaska; and the Bering Strait, whose jurisdiction is divided between the United States and Russia. See figure 1. The Bering Strait provides the only access to the Arctic Ocean from the Pacific Ocean, which lies south of the Aleutian Islands. Federal waters typically extend from 3 to 200 nautical miles offshore, and state waters for coastal states such as Alaska generally extend from the state coastline up to 3 nautical miles offshore. Within the complex array of federal and state maritime boundaries, all navigable waters of the United States are subject to some type of federal jurisdiction.
