I think most of us agree that if something's worth doing, it's worth doing right. And that goes for listing. Listers, and in this case state listers on this East Coast of the United States, have to operate by a set of rules in order for two people's lists to mean anything in relation to each other: the bird must have been alive; it must have been wild; and, most importantly, it must have been seen in the state.
However, when it comes to pelagic borders, the rules aren't so clear. Determining a state's offshore border is not nearly as easy as it is on land. Yet, these pelagic birds count just as much for a state's list as any other.
A recent exchange on the ABA Birding News - Seabird News List about defining East Coast pelagic borders has inspired me to try to put the different theories in one place. Quite frankly, it's amazing to me that there isn't a nationally-accepted set of offshore boundaries. I suppose the explanations are simple enough, however: it's more difficult for the average birder to determine his or her position at sea (until recent advantages with smartphones, etc., that is), and, more importantly, the fact that states want as much pelagic space as they can get.
Either way, I want to try to collect some info on the different systems. I am very thankful to those who posted on the Seabird News thread, from whom I am cribbing: Paul Guris, Brian Patteson, Alvaro Jaramillo, Angus Wilson, William Bourne, Marshall Iliff, Nate Dias, Tom Robben and Tom Brown.
The Nearest Point Of Land System
The American Birding Association wraps up the pelagic boundary question with a tight little sentence: "Birds observed on or over an ocean are counted for the area having the nearest land, if within 200 miles." It's as easy as that. If you see a bird out on the ocean, figure out which state's land is closest to you, and that's what state the bird should count for.
It's a system with a basis in federal law. The federal agency with management responsibility over our Exclusive Economic Zone - the area which extends beyond the 3-mile state waters boundary to a total of 200 miles out to sea - is the mouth-numbingly-named Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (it used to be named the Minerals Management Service, but they wanted a fresh start after some post-Deepwater controversies). Anyway, BOEMRE is responsible in part for getting coastal states their share of energy leases occurring off their coastlines, and in order to figure out which states deserve the money, boundaries need to be made. So, boundaries were made, and they were done using the "closest point of land" system. Here's how that looks, from the BOEMRE website (click to enlarge):
Not surprisingly, then, other systems have sprung up so that birders states with less-than-ample coastlines can enjoy the open seas.