Trump Renamed the Gulf of Mexico, but Who Controls It?

The Trump administration has renamed the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, but most of the body of water lies outside maritime regions controlled by the United States.

According to calculations by Sovereign Limits, a database of international boundaries, the United States lays claim to 46 percent of the gulf, while Mexico lays claim to 49 percent.

Maritime zones are divided into categories based on distance from the coast. Territorial seas lie closest to a nation’s shore, and the laws of a country apply within and below those waters the way they do on land, for the most part.

Farther beyond the shore, a country’s exclusive economic zone is where it controls what is in the water, like fish, as well as what is in and below the seabed, like oil and gas. Additionally, the gulf contains sections of so-called high seas, where a country might also retain rights only to the natural resources of the seabed and subsoil.

The gulf, like many regions around the world, has maritime boundaries that are mutually agreed upon by the countries along its coast. According to Kevin Danaher and Marissa Wood at Sovereign Limits, the gulf is “covered fully by established maritime boundaries.”

The Gulf of Mexico has appeared on maps for centuries, but geographic name changes are common throughout history. This name change has an immediate impact on U.S. federal agencies that map or refer to the gulf. Some companies such as Google and Apple now display Gulf of America for users in the United States. For others, the name change is optional.