Martin, Peter J

Abstract: In this Maritime Century, the notion of “sea blindness” is an interesting development. There is a perception that Australia has long experienced a “sea blindness”, where the sense of the sea and surroundings is not generally apparent in Australians]. However, reference to “sea blindness” is not restricted to Australia’s circumstance alone. Britain’s “dangerously weak Royal Navy” and reliance on sea traffic elicited the phrase in 2009 when Britain’s policy-makers were branded as suffering “sea blindness” an accusation substantiated in relation to the need for security, vulnerability to interruption of supply, and a weakened naval force structure. A nationwide survey of Seafarers UK in 2011, suggested that the British public had an alarming ignorance of the island’s dependence on the sea and that “sea blindness” was a “huge problem”. Yet in 2017 a further opinion poll conducted by the UK Chamber of shipping confirmed that “sea blindness is a myth”. Does “sea blindness” exist in the Australian circumstance? An intimate appreciation of the Australian LNG trade could provide a publicly visible appreciation of Australia’s strategic maritime circumstance in relation to other sovereign interests. Full text available here.