JACKSON, Miss. — July 14, 2014 — Since July 2013, Mississippi has claimed its state waters extend nine miles south into the Gulf of Mexico.
The federal government refuses to recognize the declaration, standing by a 1960 U.S. Supreme Court decision that determined the offshore boundary for Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama was three miles out.
The federal government also has not recognized Louisiana's 2011 declaration of a nine-mile limit.
At stake is Gulf states' control of lucrative fishing rights and revenue from oil and gas production in near-offshore waters.
Mississippi's congressional delegation has been seeking to force federal recognition of the nine-mile limit for recreational fisheries management. Republican Sen. Thad Cochran proposed an amendment that would do so through a wide-ranging bill that focuses on hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation policy.
The issue dates back to 1953, when Congress passed the Submerged Lands Act. The act established a coastal boundary for each state at three geographical miles from the shore. The federal government retained control of water bottoms farther out.
The act provided that Congress could vote to extend the boundaries up to 10 miles offshore if a state could prove the existence of a law or constitutional provision that established a boundary beyond three miles before that state joined the Union.
In a 1960 lawsuit brought by the federal government, the five Gulf states argued each qualified for an exception. The U.S. Supreme Court decided Texas and Florida had produced historical documents supporting a 10-mile boundary but it ruled Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana did not.
Read the full story from the Associated Press at GulfLive.com