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It shows both carriers coming close to Japanese islands, and at times sailing through Japan's exclusive economic zone.

The exclusive economic zone is an area beyond a country's territorial waters where that country has exclusive rights to explore and exploit marine resources, but other countries are allowed freedom of navigation through it.

"While we're only about 200 square kilometers in land mass, we have an exclusive economic zone of almost 2 million square kilometres," she says.

For all four species the vast majority of hotpots for whale-ship strikes -- more than 95% -- hugged coastlines, falling within a nation's exclusive economic zone.

An international court ruled in 2016 that the Second Thomas Shoal, which lies near the site of the collision on Monday, was within the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone.