evidence: The United States of America holds claim to 16 territories outside of the United States. These range from Puerto Rico, with over 140 smaller islands and over 3 million residents, to uninhabited territories (and disputed territories) such as Bajo Nuevo Bank, Navassa Island, Serranilla Bank, and Wake Island. The United States has many political, defensive, social and other reasons to claim these territories as important lands of the United States. However, another important reason to claim them is for their resource potential. Those territories that consist of an island or a cluster of islands are surrounded by sea floors that may contain important mineral, energy, and food resources. By claiming them, the United States claims rights to an exclusive economic zone that extends up to 200 miles offshore (or half of the distance to the nearest shoreline claimed by another sovereign state). [...] Bajo Nuevo Bank, also known as the Petrel Islands: Two coral reefs in the Caribbean Sea, located about 150 miles southwest of Jamaica. Administered by Colombia but claimed by the United States and Jamaica.