The Country You Don't See asks a simple question: when you look at a map of a coastal nation, are you looking at the whole country? Zach Martin and Emily Martin open Ocean Capital Desk with the map past the shoreline. Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, a coastal state can claim a territorial sea out to 12 nautical miles, a contiguous zone out to 24, and an exclusive economic zone out to 200. Inside that zone it holds sovereign rights over fish, seabed resources, and energy from water, currents, and wind. An exclusive economic zone is not the same as land. Other states still navigate, fly over, and lay submarine cables. Sierra Leone is the case. Its land area is about 71,620 square kilometers. The economic geography offshore can be far larger, in fisheries, ports, shipping lanes, cables, and possible wind. The episode sets up the Ocean Balance Sheet: not just how big the ocean zone is, but how much of it a country actually uses. Not investment advice.

This episode includes AI-generated content.