Humans have long relied on the sea, and the struggle for fishing has been intense, and although such a conflict is obsolete, the prospects for its return are on the rise.
With the world population rising from 7.6 billion now to 9.8 billion in 2050, according to UN estimates, demand for food, especially protein, will increase further.
The adoption of the middle classes, the world's largest, on the protein will require 62 to 159 million extra tons of protein, which will prompt leaders to act to ensure that the food is available to their people, says Kate Higgins-Bloom in an article in the journal Foreign Policy.
Higgins-Bleu, the commander of a US Coast Guard commander, says growth in fish demand will be concentrated in Asia, Africa and Latin America, areas where the middle class is expanding.
The current annual global fishing of seafood is 94 million metric tons, while species of fish, such as tuna, are overfished, as well as the spread of illegal fishing, causing severe economic, social and environmental damage.
The writer, for example, likens the illegal fishermen in Central America to "drug cartels", who employ their enormous potential at sea, away from the eyes of the Coast Guard, to trade in illegal fish.
The author attributes the surge in illegal fishing to rising domestic demand for fish amid a supply crunch, which could be faced with increasingly stringent laws in countries threatened with destruction.
There are dozens of sea conflicts around the world on fishing grounds, including one between Canada and the United States on two small islands off the coast of New Brunswick.
Currently, the most important maritime disputes are in the South and East China Sea, where China currently consumes one-third of the world's fish, and is conducting maritime patrols to conserve fish within its territorial waters.
