The MOU Box, or sometimes the MOU 74 Box, refers to a rectangular tract of marine waters in the

Timor Sea The Timor Sea ( id, Laut Timor, pt, Mar de Timor, tet, Tasi Mane or ) is a relatively shallow sea bounded to the north by the island of Timor, to the east by the Arafura Sea, and to the south by Australia. The sea contains a number of reefs ...

, lying within Australia's Exclusive Economic Zone, that is subject to a 1974 memorandum of understanding (MoU), and subsequent agreements, between Australia and

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

rated to traditional fishing rights consistent with UNDRIP. The MOU Box covers an area of about including

Scott and Seringapatam Reefs Scott and Seringapatam Reefs is a group of atoll-like reefs in the Timor Sea more than northwest of Cape Leveque, Western Australia, on the edge of the continental shelf. There are three or four separate reef structures, depending on whether Sc ...

, Browse Island, and Ashmore and Cartier Islands. Australia declared a

marine protected area Marine protected areas (MPA) are protected areas of seas, oceans, estuaries or in the US, the Great Lakes. These marine areas can come in many forms ranging from wildlife refuges to research facilities. MPAs restrict human activity for a conse ...

around Ashmore Island in 1983, and around Cartier Island in 2000.

Agreement

The bilateral agreement establishing the MOU Box is officially known as the Australia–Indonesia Memorandum of Understanding regarding the Operations of Indonesian Traditional Fishermen in Areas of the Australian Fishing Zone and Continental Shelf – 1974. From 2001 cooperation under the Agreement has taken place through the Working Group on Marine Affairs and Fisheries, which brings together representatives of fisheries, research, and environment agencies from both countries. The agreement recognises access rights of traditional Indonesian

fishers Fisher is an archaic term for a fisherman, revived as gender-neutral. Fisher, Fishers or The Fisher may also refer to: Places Australia *Division of Fisher, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in Queensland *Elect ...

in shared waters to the north of Australia with regard to the long history of traditional Indonesian fishing there, especially for trepang,

trochus ''Trochus'' is a genus of medium-sized to large, top-shaped sea snails with an operculum and a pearly inside to their shells, marine gastropod molluscs in the subfamily Trochinae of the family Trochidae, the top snails.Bouchet, P.; Gofas, S. ( ...

, abalone and

sponge Sponges, the members of the phylum Porifera (; meaning 'pore bearer'), are a basal animal clade as a sister of the diploblasts. They are multicellular organisms that have bodies full of pores and channels allowing water to circulate throug ...

References

Treaties extended to Ashmore and Cartier Islands Treaties of Australia Treaties of Indonesia Australia–Indonesia relations Fishing areas of the Indian Ocean 1974 establishments in Australia {{Australia-geo-stub