[NavVet]

12 miles, the internationally accepted norm. I'm not talking about the exlusive economic zone that goes further out, but strictly speaking 12 miles is the limit of the U.S. territorial sea. A foreign warship could park 12.5 miles off the coast and as long as it didn't polute or start mining operations etc., we couldn't do anything about it.

[Malsua]

we couldn't do anything about it.

You mean we wouldn't send some tin cans to pull up next to it and watch and if it hung around long enough some destroyers, missile frigrates and the like? Just curious really. I don't know diddly about this, I just don't figure we'd let a hostile park that close without some form of at least a "passive" response.

[Former Proud Canadian]

I could be wrong, but a quick look at google maps seems to suggest that parts of the north west passage are less than 24 miles wide. Maybe you have some charts and can check it.

I honestly have no idea what claims Canada makes to the Arctic north of Alert. There is no landfall in that area. Just the icecap.

[Cacique]

I was under the understanding that the United States only recognizes a three mile territorial limit and a 12 mile fishing limit. Most other countries insists on the 12 mile rule. The convention of the three mile rule was common in the 18th and 19th centuries as that was the maximum range of cannon at the time. Thus it became accepted practice to accept the territorial waters as what could be defended from the coast.