This is CBS. Hi on the World. I'm John Batchel. Gordon Chang. My co-host and friend is here, and we're going to the coast of Argentina.

This is an exotic story requiring a lot of attention to detail from the Navy point of view, and that's why we're

very privileged to welcome James Holmes, Jim Holmes, the first holder of the Wiley Chair of Maritime

Strategy at the Naval War College. He blogs with the Naval Diplomat. Jim, a very good evening to you.

Thank you very much. We're looking at a story that I can't interpret easily, so I know you will be able to help me on this.

Why Argentina's military is deploying to surveil hundreds of Chinese fishing boats off the coast of Argentina.

The last time I checked on a swarm of Chinese fishing boats, they were

invading Philippine waters. Are they invading Argentine waters? What is the signal here? Good

evening to you, Professor. Hey, gentlemen. A pleasure as always. Yeah, it's a real problem.

The Chinese fishing fleet, in effect,

I would encourage everybody to look at the CNN story that you referenced because there's a

couple of really good maps showing what the Chinese fishing fleet has been up to. Essentially,

essentially hundreds of Chinese fishing craft have been basically clustered just outside the

exclusive economic zone of Venezuela, but Argentina most recently. And so the Argentine

military has been deployed to monitor this and make sure the fishing fleet does not enter

into the exclusive economic zone. And doing what the, doing what the fleet has done a lot,

which is overfished these waters. I mean, China has become voracious for seafood as it becomes more and more prosperous.

We've seen this happen in the off Ecuador last year, around the Galapagos Islands.

And as you point out, the other aspect of it is that the fishing fleet, in a very real sense,

is an instrument of Chinese sea power, a geopolitical instrument.

You've mentioned the Philippines.

It's quite clear that China has been using the fishing fleet to try to stake its claims. is an instrument of Chinese sea power, a geopolitical instrument. You've mentioned the Philippines.

...