14 March 2016: Illegal fishing vessel the MV Viking is blown up in the waters of Tanjung Batumandi, Pangandaran, West JavaAdeng Bustomi/Antara Foto/Reuters
Keith Johnson and Dan De Luce, Foreign Policy: Fishing Disputes Could Spark a South China Sea Crisis
Rivalries in the South China Sea are getting heated over a resource fight. But it’s more about fish than fuel.
The simmering maritime disputes and land grabs in the South China Sea have long been seen as a battle over its potentially vast undersea deposits of oil and natural gas. That’s not quite true: There is a sometimes violent scramble for resources in the region, but it’s more a fight for fish than for oil.
The latest evidence came Tuesday, when Indonesia blew up 23 fishing boats from Vietnam and Malaysia that it said were poaching in Indonesian waters. It wasn’t the first time Indonesia’s flamboyant, chain-smoking fisheries minister, Susi Pudjiastuti, has literally dynamited her way to international headlines: The country demolished 27 fishing boats in February and has scuttled more than 170 in the last two years.
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WNU Editor: There are many precedents for this type of conflict (i.e. a conflict over fish) .... the Iceland - U.K. Cod war is one that comes to my mind. And in today's South China Seas .... Indonesia has shown itself to be more than willing to blow-up these fishing boats .... Indonesia Blows Up 23 Foreign Fishing Boats to Send a Message (IBTimes).
Update: How China’s fishermen are fighting a covert war in the South China Sea (Simon Denyer, Washington Post).
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