U.S. contiguous zone
E244195
The U.S. contiguous zone is a band of ocean adjacent to U.S. territorial waters where the United States exercises limited control to prevent and punish infringements of its customs, fiscal, immigration, and sanitary laws.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| U.S. contiguous zone canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2229449 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: U.S. contiguous zone Context triple: [United States territorial waters, relatedTo, U.S. contiguous zone]
-
A.
U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone
The U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone is a vast maritime area extending from the U.S. coastline in which the United States has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.
-
B.
United States territorial waters
United States territorial waters are the maritime zones adjacent to the U.S. coast over which the United States exercises sovereignty and jurisdiction, typically extending up to 12 nautical miles from its shorelines.
-
C.
Panama Canal Zone (historical)
The Panama Canal Zone was a former U.S.-controlled territory in Panama that encompassed the land surrounding the Panama Canal and served as a strategic corridor for international maritime trade.
-
D.
Cuba (maritime boundary)
Cuba (maritime boundary) refers to the legally defined sea border and associated maritime zones separating the territorial waters and jurisdictions of Cuba and neighboring states such as the Cayman Islands.
-
E.
New York State territorial waters
New York State territorial waters are the coastal and inland marine areas under New York’s legal authority, encompassing its ocean, estuarine, and Great Lakes waters where the state manages resources and enforces environmental and wildlife regulations.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: U.S. contiguous zone Target entity description: The U.S. contiguous zone is a band of ocean adjacent to U.S. territorial waters where the United States exercises limited control to prevent and punish infringements of its customs, fiscal, immigration, and sanitary laws.
-
A.
U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone
The U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone is a vast maritime area extending from the U.S. coastline in which the United States has special rights over the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind.
-
B.
United States territorial waters
United States territorial waters are the maritime zones adjacent to the U.S. coast over which the United States exercises sovereignty and jurisdiction, typically extending up to 12 nautical miles from its shorelines.
-
C.
Panama Canal Zone (historical)
The Panama Canal Zone was a former U.S.-controlled territory in Panama that encompassed the land surrounding the Panama Canal and served as a strategic corridor for international maritime trade.
-
D.
Cuba (maritime boundary)
Cuba (maritime boundary) refers to the legally defined sea border and associated maritime zones separating the territorial waters and jurisdictions of Cuba and neighboring states such as the Cayman Islands.
-
E.
New York State territorial waters
New York State territorial waters are the coastal and inland marine areas under New York’s legal authority, encompassing its ocean, estuarine, and Great Lakes waters where the state manages resources and enforces environmental and wildlife regulations.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (47)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
contiguous zone
ⓘ
maritime zone ⓘ |
| adjacentTo | U.S. territorial sea ⓘ |
| allows |
exercise of control necessary to prevent infringement of U.S. laws within its territory or territorial sea
ⓘ
exercise of control necessary to punish infringement of U.S. laws within its territory or territorial sea ⓘ |
| appliesTo |
contiguous zone off Alaska
ⓘ
contiguous zone off Hawaii ⓘ contiguous zone off U.S. Caribbean territories ⓘ contiguous zone off U.S. Gulf coast ⓘ contiguous zone off the U.S. Atlantic coast ⓘ contiguous zone off the U.S. Pacific coast ⓘ |
| basedOn | United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ⓘ |
| conformsTo | Article 33 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea ⓘ |
| country | United States of America ⓘ |
| dateEstablished | 1999-09-02 ⓘ |
| distinctFrom |
U.S. exclusive economic zone
ⓘ
U.S. territorial sea ⓘ |
| enforcedBy |
United States Coast Guard
ⓘ
surface form:
U.S. Coast Guard
U.S. Customs and Border Protection ⓘ other designated U.S. federal agencies ⓘ |
| enteredIntoForce | 1999-09-02 ⓘ |
| governedBy | U.S. federal law ⓘ |
| innerLimitDistance | 12 nautical miles from the territorial sea baseline ⓘ |
| jurisdictionType | limited control ⓘ |
| legalBasis |
33 CFR Part 2
ⓘ
Presidential Proclamation 7219 ⓘ Presidential Proclamation ⓘ
surface form:
Proclamation by President William J. Clinton
|
| locatedIn |
Arctic Ocean
ⓘ
Atlantic Ocean ⓘ Caribbean Sea ⓘ Gulf of Mexico ⓘ Pacific Ocean ⓘ |
| maximumBreadth | 12 nautical miles in width beyond the territorial sea ⓘ |
| measuredFrom | U.S. territorial sea baseline ⓘ |
| outerLimitDistance | 24 nautical miles from the territorial sea baseline ⓘ |
| purpose |
to prevent infringement of U.S. customs laws
ⓘ
to prevent infringement of U.S. fiscal laws ⓘ to prevent infringement of U.S. immigration laws ⓘ to prevent infringement of U.S. sanitary laws ⓘ to punish infringement of U.S. customs laws ⓘ to punish infringement of U.S. fiscal laws ⓘ to punish infringement of U.S. immigration laws ⓘ to punish infringement of U.S. sanitary laws ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
U.S. exclusive economic zone
ⓘ
United States territorial waters ⓘ
surface form:
U.S. territorial sea
|
| sovereigntyStatus | no full sovereignty ⓘ |
| statusUnderUNCLOS | recognized maritime zone adjacent to the territorial sea ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: U.S. contiguous zone Description of subject: The U.S. contiguous zone is a band of ocean adjacent to U.S. territorial waters where the United States exercises limited control to prevent and punish infringements of its customs, fiscal, immigration, and sanitary laws.
Referenced by (1)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.