ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Australia’s Northern Ocean, a region that has perplexed Australia strategically in both peace and war. This region is home to over 3 million fishing vessels in a contested water space with declining fish stocks. This means that, more than anywhere else in Australia’s maritime domain, fisheries issues are inextricably intertwined in the foreign policy and politics of the region. The rules and norms are being tested and the actions of the Chinese fishing fleet further north, in terms of both their huge catch and their assertions of national sovereignty, are having a knock-on effect in the region as Southeast Asian fishers are turning south. Australia must confront this new reality in order to respond to this maritime challenge.
