Filipino fishermen have been fishing just outside, not inside, the lagoon of Panatag (Scarborough) Shoal, a Washington, D.C. think tank claims, citing recent satellite images. On its website, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the prevailing situation was the “status quo” since mid-2012, when China seized control of the resource-rich shoal, also known as Bajo de Masinloc. Prior to 2012, Filipino fishing boats went in and out of the lagoon, which lies within the 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone guaranteed of coastal states by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

Salvosa, F. F. II. (2016, November 3). PH boats fishing outside Panatag, US think tank claims. The Manila Times, pp. A1, A8.