Howland-Baker EEZ

Howland and Baker islands are two uninhabited U.S. atolls in the Equatorial Pacific that are located close to one another. Both islands are wildlife refuges, the larger of which is Howland Island:

In addition to the article title, there are several ways the sources refer to this group of islands. These include Howland and Baker Islands,Baker and Howland Islands,Baker and Howland islands, Howland & Baker Islands,Baker & Howland Islands, "Howard [sic] and Baker Islands", "Baker and Howard [sic] Islands", "Baker & Howard [sic] Islands", Howland/Baker EEZ, and Howland-Baker EEZ.

They are both part of the larger political territory of the United States Minor Outlying Islands and they are also both part of the larger geographic grouping of the Phoenix Islands. Each is a National Wildlife Refuge managed by a division of Interior, the Fish and Wildlife Service. On January 6, 2009, President George Bush, in creating the monument, added both islands to the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument.

The Howland-Baker EEZ (Exclusive Economic Zone) is a 400 nautical-mile diameter area protected by the U.S. Coast Guard, and was in the news in 2005. The Howland-Baker EEZ has 425,700 km2; and by comparison, California has 423,970 km2.

The area may best be known, specifically Howland Island, as the area that Amelia Earhart failed to reach in 1937. In the age of internet communication, the islands have attracted attention as the only land masses in the world associated with UTC−12:00, which is the last area on earth for deadlines with a date to pass.

The 1976 Magnuson–Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act provided for the U.S. EEZs, which were further established by the Presidential Proclamation of 1983. The Treaty of Tarawa, signed in September 1979, came into force in September 1983, and created the international boundary of the EEZ between Baker Island and McKean Island. Article 4 specifically states, "The two Governments recognize the interest of their peoples in close cooperation for their mutual benefit in economic development relating to fisheries off their coasts." Since 2008, the Kiribati side of this boundary has been a marine protected area, the Phoenix Islands Protected Area.

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