No one owns the ocean. The seas and oceans are considered to be a 'global commons', which means that they belong to everyone and no one at the same time. However, countries do have the right to claim 'exclusive economic zones' (EEZs) up to 200 nautical miles from their coastlines.
To summarize, while the body of water of the sea cannot be owned by anyone, the seabed is owned by the coastal State within the limits of the "territorial sea" and not beyond.
All of us own the oceans, and yet none of us do. It's a conundrum. For centuries, beginning with the Age of Exploration when ships were developed that could convey humans across the globe, the governments that represent people like you, the oceans' owner, agreed that no one owned the oceans.
Although the oceans are technically viewed as international zones, meaning no one country has jurisdiction over it all, there are regulations in place to help keep the peace and to essentially divide responsibility for the world's oceans to various entities or countries around the world.
There is no founder of the Atlantic Sea, as the Atlantic Ocean is a natural body of water that has existed for millions of years. It is one of the world's five oceans and is bordered by North America and South America to the west, Europe and Africa to the east, and the Southern Ocean to the south.
The Pacific Ocean has been dominated by the United States since the end of World War II. While China has the largest navy, the United States has vast powerful submarine fleets and by far the most aircraft carrier groups in the world.
In the Pacific Ocean, somewhere between Guam and the Philippines, lies the Marianas Trench, also known as the Mariana Trench. At 35,814 feet below sea level, its bottom is called the Challenger Deep — the deepest point known on Earth.
Who owns the ocean? No one owns the ocean. The seas and oceans are considered to be a 'global commons', which means that they belong to everyone and no one at the same time. However, countries do have the right to claim 'exclusive economic zones' (EEZs) up to 200 nautical miles from their coastlines.
Seriously, activities within a nation's territorial waters are controlled by its government. They don't "sell" acreage of sea, but they do license (or prohibit) certain activities like oil drilling.
The three permanently inhabited U.S. Pacific territories are the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and American Samoa. Lying along the western side of the Pacific Ring of Fire, they are vulnerable to the effects of earthquakes, tsunamis and both island and underwater volcanism.
It exercises control over the sea, at least in certain areas for certain lengths of time. Sea control provides a freedom of action that is required for the pursuit of other objectives, such as shipping protection, military sealift, and blockade.
The territorial sea is a maritime zone over which the United States exercises sovereignty. Sovereignty extends to the airspace above and to the seabed below the territorial sea. The U.S. territorial sea extends 12 nautical miles from the baseline.
The U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) extends no more than 200 nautical miles from the territorial sea baseline and is adjacent to the 12 nautical mile territorial sea of the U.S., including the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands ...
The whole of the White Sea is under Russian sovereignty and considered to be part of the internal waters of Russia. Administratively, it is divided between the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk oblasts and the Republic of Karelia.
Therefore, every nation of the world has the right to partake and share of the oceans bounty whether landlocked or coastal, developed, emerg- ing or developing economies.
How Much Treasure is Down There? The short answer, Sean Fisher says, is $60 billion. Fisher is a shipwreck hunter at Mel Fisher's Treasures in Key West (Sean is Mel's grandson), and he gives this figure based on his company's historical research.
Under common law, the states own the portion of the beaches that lies between low and high water marks; the so-called "wet sand" is thus open to anyone.
The finding, published in Science, suggests that a reservoir of water is hidden in the Earth's mantle, more than 400 miles below the surface. Try to refrain from imagining expanses of underground seas: all this water, three times the volume of water on the surface, is trapped inside rocks.
There is plenty of publically-held land owned by the federal government or states. However, there is no land in the US that does not have a designated owner.
Looking at the entire oceans, however, the Pacific Ocean is by far the warmest overall ocean because it has about four times the intense sun-heated surface area in the tropics compared with the Atlantic Ocean.
Last year an expedition to the Mariana Trench made history by conducting the deepest crewed dive ever completed as it descended 10,927 metres into the Challenger Deep.
The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans.