![](http://www.cicsimmigration.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/extended-continental-shelf.png)
The brown line marks Canada’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), which is an area of continental shelf 200 nautical miles (nm) from a country’s coastline over which a country has sovereign rights over. The green line is an estimate of the outer limit of Canada’s extended continental shelf made in the mid-1990s. Studies done in recent years of the sea floor off of Canada’s coasts have largely confirmed the initial estimates. (Polar Commission of Canada)