The late 1970s and early 1980s may be taken as an important turning point in the history of the extension of the frontier of fishing in Southeast Asian waters. It was at this time that the Indonesian government banned trawl fishing in most of the sea under its jurisdiction and that governments throughout Southeast Asia claimed their offshore waters as exclusive economic zones. Both events, arising as they did out of conflict over access to living marine resources, indicate that the period of freewheeling extension was ending. During the 1980s and into the 1990s the demand for fish products continued to grow rapidly. The population of Southeast Asia — the single most powerful source of demand — grew at 2 per cent a year to 480 million in 1995, while living standards rose as the economies of many countries, particularly Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia, were restructured towards the export of manufactured goods. At the same time, the economic success of Taiwan and Hong Kong and the emergence of a class of rich business people in the People's Republic of China renewed the centuries’ old demand from China for the marine exotica of Southeast Asia, and the markets for tuna and shrimp continued to grow in Japan, North America, and Europe. At least in the short term this growing demand was matched by increasing catches. Between 1980 and 1997 nominal fish landings rose from 5.8 to 11 million tons, contributing (along with supplies from freshwater sources, aquaculture, and imports) to a general increase in the per capita supply of fish to the people of Southeast Asia. There were, however, limits to how much the sea could yield to meet the ever-increasing demand. During the 1990s total landings increased less rapidly than they had during the 1980s. In the Philippines, the first country to take part in the fish race, landings ceased to increase during the 1990s, while in Thailand, the second country to join the race, they increased much less rapidly than they had during the previous three decades. This slowing took place even though, as we shall see, large-scale operators in both countries landed large quantities of fish caught in the waters of other countries.