As you can see from pages 180–1 of the Heinemann Atlas 3rd edn, a large area of the world’s oceans are covered by territorial sea claims. In addition, many countries also claim a much larger area of sea known as their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).

An EEZ is designed to protect the economic benefits that a country can gain from its adjoining oceans, particularly those linked to fishing and mining.

Not every country has a territorial sea claim and/or an EEZ. The size of the claim also varies between countries – a fact that is revealed on close inspection of the key on page 180 of the Heinemann Atlas 3rd edn.

Increasingly, Australian authorities have had to deal with illegal fishing (such as fishing of the Patagonian toothfish) in its EEZ. To protect valuable and sometimes rare resources, the Federal Government has gone to great lengths to establish and maintain a Coastwatch surveillance program.

In the case of countries with a long coastline and extensive EEZ, such as Australia, monitoring an EEZ can be a difficult task. With such a large geographical area to cover, just observing breaches of the rights granted to Australia by its EEZ is difficult, let alone carrying out the complicated physical and legal process of bringing offenders to justice.