Fishing fleets, food security, and maritime confrontation

China's large fishing fleets create a proposed strategic dilemma between feeding a population and sustaining fish stocks shared with other countries. Damage to those stocks can produce disputes beyond the waters where fishing takes place. In the ecological interpretation offered here, humans have been part of marine ecosystems for thousands of years and have sometimes displaced other apex predators. Completely removing their activity would therefore not necessarily restore an earlier balance; the question becomes what level of human predation is appropriate. Gorshkov's treatment of fishing fleets also places their contribution to state power well before present-day Chinese maritime militia. Fisheries management and competition over food resources can consequently become sources of confrontation at sea.