At 12:41 PM 06/20/1999 -0400, Paul O'Brien wrote: >To make things even more >interesting, Mary Gustafson told me that a trip on May 30 out of Cape May was >in MD waters when they saw Atlantic Puffin and South Polar Skua. Take that, >Mississippi! OK, here's where things may get ugly <grin> ... The MD/DCRC "charter" defines Maryland waters as 200 miles due east of the MD/DE and MD/VA borders at the Atlantic Ocean coast. The is no "standard" definition of how to define pelagic boundaries. Many states either use or are moving toward the "closest point of land" approach, that the ABA uses, but there is no "official" or accepted governing body (like the AOU) to commonly define pelagic boundaries. Were all the birds mentioned from that Cape May trip seen with the MD swath of the MD pelagic zone? Phil ================================================ Phil Davis, Secretary MD/DC Records Committee home: PDavis@ix.netcom.com Davidsonville, Maryland USA work: PDavis@OAO.com Greenbelt, Maryland USA MD/DCRC Web site: http://www.MDBirds.org ================================================