How to Buffer the Baltic Sea?

Dear GIS-friends,
as I am just getting started I have some problems with GIS and am wondering if you could help me.

The Version I am using is arc GIS 9.3.

The Problem is the following:
I have XY-GPS-Data (approx 6000 in total) in WGS84.
The excercise I would like to perform with these is to add them to a map of the Baltic Sea and to exclude all XY-features that are more than 3.0 km on land.
So all XY-features that are in the water and up to 3.0 km on land shall be included.

I do not know which projection is best for my task. Could be possible that it is UTM ZONE 32 N ?

After the data set is free of XY-features that are clearly inland it is desired to create 5 different polygons whoch define certain areas of the Baltic Sea. The GPS vertices which define these polygons are known. The polgons shall include the Baltic Sea plus the Buffer Zone.

Once these Polygons are created it is desired to join the ID of the specific polygon to the XY-features that lie within this polygon.

As I am just getting started with ArcGIS I have no idea where the different tools for this excercise are nor do I know how to properly use them.

I would be very thankful if anbody could help me with this issue.

Many thanks in advance!


Yours sincerely,

Philip