Territorial Sea and Exclusive Economic Zone Amendment Act 1996 (No. 74).

Subject to section 6 of this Act, section 6A outlines circumstances in which the method of drawing straight lines joining points may be employed in drawing the baseline from which the breadth of the territorial sea is measured. Also, for the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, the points between which straight lines may be drawn are prescribed. The rules laid down in comma (3) shall be observed. Where, in a case where the coast is highly unstable because of the presence of a delta or other natural conditions, a straight line has been drawn pursuant to this section, that line remains the baseline, notwithstanding any subsequent regression of the low-water line, until it is changed in accordance with this Act. Section 8A defines the contiguous zone: the contiguous zone of New Zealand comprises those areas of the sea having, as their inner limits, the marker, and, as their outer limits, a line measured seaward from the marker, every point of which line is distant 12 nautical miles from the nearest point of the marker conform United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, article 33. 'Marker' means the line that, pursuant to section 3 of this Act, marks the outer limits of the territorial sea of New Zealand. Consequantial amendments are made.