Territorial Sea, Contiguous Zone, and Exclusive Economic Zone Act 1977

6 Baseline of territorial sea adjacent to bay

• In the case of the sea adjacent to a bay, the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured—

  • (a) where the bay has only 1 mouth and the distance between the low-water marks of the natural entrance points of the bay does not exceed 24 nautical miles, shall be a straight line joining those low-water marks; and

  • (b) where, because of the presence of islands, the bay has more than 1 mouth and the distances between the low-water marks of the natural entrance points of each mouth added together do not exceed 24 nautical miles, shall be a series of straight lines across each of the mouths so as to join those low-water marks; and

  • (c) where neither paragraph (a) nor paragraph (b) applies, shall be a straight line 24 nautical miles in length drawn from low-water mark to low-water mark within the bay in such a manner as to enclose the maximum area of water that is possible with a line of that length.