Despite the strategic significance of EEZs, a standard georeferenced product with maritime boundaries was not available at the global level (Claus et. al, 2014), until it was developed and made available by the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) in 2006 (Deckers and Vanden Berghe, 2006).

The product developed at VLIZ consisted of two GIS layers providing both the maritime boundaries (lines) and the EEZs (polygons). The layers were regularly updated with 8 consecutive versions published between 2006 and 2014. Version 9 was launched by the VLIZ-hosted portal Marineregions.org in October 2016 and implied major new developments. Straight and archipelagic baselines were included, together with remaining areas defined by UNCLOS: internal and archipelagic waters, territorial seas and contiguous zones.