The Chilean Sea is the portion of the Pacific Ocean lying west of the Chilean mainland. The official Chilean usage for Chilean Sea was defined on 30 May 1974 when the Diario oficial de la Republica de Chile published Supreme Decree #346, which declared that "the waters surrounding or touching the shores of the national territory shall be known as Mar Chileno."[1]
The Chilean Sea contains significant amounts of phosphorite and manganese-iron nodules, which may be potential targets for future seafloor mining.[2]
The face sea, or heritage safeguard sea, is the maritime space that a certain coastal country demarcates, after an oceanopolitical appreciation, in order to indicate to third parties its zone of influence in the high seas adjacent to its exclusive economic zone, where its interests were or could be directly involved.
Without claims of sovereignty, by making a delimitation that includes the effective occupation of the high seas contiguous to its respective oceanic territory, the coastal state shows the interest in preserving said area from abusive uses or from certain activities that, due to its proximity, may affect the marine resources that inhabit its waters, especially, guarding the highly migratory straddling fishery resources from predation, and pollution of the marine habitat.
Chile's EEZ includes areas around the Desventuradas Islands, Easter Island and the Juan Fernández Islands.
| Region | EEZ Area (km2)[3] | Land area | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mainland | 1,975,760 | 755 757 | 2,731,517 |
| Desventuradas | 449 836 | 5 | 449 841 |
| Easter | 720 412 | 164 | 720 576 |
| Juan Fernandez | 502 524 | 100 | 502 624 |
| Total | 3,648,532 | 755 921 | 4,404,453 |
