{"id":2471,"date":"2020-12-16T08:54:29","date_gmt":"2020-12-16T08:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=139882"},"modified":"2020-12-16T08:54:29","modified_gmt":"2020-12-16T08:54:29","slug":"fish-wars-and-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/12\/16\/fish-wars-and-brexit\/","title":{"rendered":"Fish Wars and Brexit"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photograph Source: Dave_S. \u2013 CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Warring over fish in the twenty-first century might seem an unlikely proposition. But the deployment of four Royal Navy ships to deter European fishing vessels from encroaching on British waters in the event of a no-deal Brexit has tongues wagging. The prospects of a trade pact between the EU and UK by the end of this month are becoming cold and remote. This much has been admitted by the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, and his EU counterpart, Ursula von der Leyen.<\/p>\n

A key contention between the parties is the issue of fishing. Access to British waters by European nations is a long affair that prompted the late diplomat Sir Con O\u2019Neill to remark<\/a> that, \u201cThe question of fisheries was economic peanuts, but political dynamite.\u201d Eight European member states who fish in British waters are demanding that Britain, despite Brexit, maintain the status quo on fishing arrangements.<\/p>\n

Non-UK boats have certainly been very happy to avail themselves of waters within the UK\u2019s 200-nautical mile economic zone. Between 2012 and 2014, it was estimated<\/a> that 58% of fish and shellfish landed from the UK\u2019s Exclusive Economic Zone were caught by non-UK boats. This comprised 650,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish worth \u00a3408 million each year. UK fishing boats, in contrast, landed 90,000 tonnes of fish and shellfish, worth \u00a3103 million.<\/p>\n

As the EU\u2019s chief negotiator Michel Barnier explained<\/a> to the House of Lords in June, \u201cthe fisheries agreement we want with the United Kingdom would be an indissociable part of the economic agreement on trade and the level playing field \u2013 or, to make it even more clear, there will be no trade agreement with the UK if there is no balanced agreement on fisheries.\u201d<\/p>\n

The picture is a complex tangle. According to Barnier, various matters must be taken into account: \u201chistorical fishing rights, sometimes dating back many centuries; the economic interests of coastal fishing communities in the EU and the UK and international rules from the UN on biodiversity.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the strongest advocates of the status quo position is the French President, Emmanuel Macron. In October, he put forth his claim that French fishing fleets would continue to fish in British waters irrespective of whether a trade agreement was reached. As French fishing fleets take 75% of their catch from British waters, the unpopular French leader would like to stay that course. Last Friday, Macron stated<\/a> that, while he did not \u201cwant to have my cake and eat it\u201d he did not \u201cwant the pieces cut equally because I am not giving my piece away\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Johnson government sees it differently. The status quo must change. Waters are to be reclaimed. Bigger catches for the British are being demanded. Barnier has previously suggested<\/a> some modification of the \u201ctwo extreme positions\u201d might take place, taking into account the UK\u2019s preference for \u201czonal attachment\u201d. Such a softening still looks some way off.<\/p>\n

With EU-UK talks teetering on collapse, Johnson\u2019s own gunboat diplomacy is drawing different views. Tobias Ellwood, Conservative chairman of the Commons Defence Committee, sees it<\/a> as \u201cirresponsible\u201d. Former European commissioner Lord Chris Patten identifies the all too bright colours of nationalism at play. Johnson, he claimed, was on a \u201crunaway train of English exceptionalism\u201d.<\/p>\n

A few government backbenchers disagree. Chests are being thumped. Daniel Kawczynski suggested<\/a> last week that a no-deal scenario would mean that the prime minister give an \u201cabsolute guarantee \u2026 that British naval forces will be deployed from January 1st<\/sup> to prevent illegal French fishing in our waters.\u201d Retired Royal Navy admiral Sir Alan West considered<\/a> it \u201cabsolutely appropriate that the Royal Navy should protect our waters if the position is that we are a sovereign state and our government has said we don\u2019t want other nations there.\u201d  British fishermen were \u201cquite stormy people\u201d that might see a \u201cpunch-up\u201d and the necessary deployment of \u201csome marines and things.\u201d  Ominous signs.<\/p>\n

The last time so much heat was expended over fishing rights between Britain and a European state was the protracted agony that came to be known as the Cod Wars. Between the late 1940s and 1970s, Britain and Iceland waged a conflict over fisheries that threatened to bring two NATO powers into open conflict.<\/p>\n

Instances of conflict began with Iceland\u2019s gaining of control over its territorial waters after 1945. But matters took a turn for the worse with the unilateral declaration by Iceland of an exclusion zone on September 1, 1958 to prevent British trawlers from operating within 12 nautical miles off the country\u2019s coast.<\/p>\n

The British, with its fishing industry heavily reliant on shipping in Icelandic waters, ignored the declaration; the Icelandic coastguard asserted its claims. The issue was not entirely one of pantomime. Three British frigates \u2013 the HMS Eastbourne, the HMS Russell and HMS Palliser \u2013 accompanied by the HMS Hound, a minesweeper, were deployed. To avoid the \u201cappearance of gunboat diplomacy,\u201d as the Guardian<\/em> correspondent at the time put it<\/a>, the vessels had sailed from various British ports the previous week, their movements subject to a security blackout.<\/p>\n

The Icelandic navy, with its eight small coastguard patrol vessels, promised an aggressive response, intending to fire into the bridge of any trawler coming within the twelve-mile limit, having refused to heed a shot across the bows.  British trawlers were harried and boarded.<\/p>\n

In 1973, Iceland extended the zone to 50 miles, which again saw the deployment of British frigates as protection for the trawlers. In 1976, the distance had been extended to 200 miles. It took sessions, mediated through NATO, for the two countries to finally come to agreement. The British were permitted to keep 24 trawlers within the 200 mile area, limiting their catch to 50,000 tons. Britain\u2019s fisheries were already in poor shape; these arrangements precipitated a dramatic loss of fishing jobs<\/a> in such ports as Grimsby, Hull and Fleetwood.<\/p>\n

This time, the European fishing industry risks getting a mauling in the event of a no-deal. French fishing grounds risk being depleted by the vessels of other European states.  Prices of fish in Europe will also rise. Tom Premereur, director of the Vlaamse Visveilingen fishing auction market in Ostend, is concerned<\/a> about Belgium\u2019s share of the catch. Up to 54% is netted in British waters. \u201cWe would lose a lot of fish, certainly the high value fish.\u201d The gruesome spectacle of territorial aggression, ruined fish stocks and environmental degradation seems, at least as things stand, imminent.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photograph Source: Dave_S. \u2013 CC BY 2.0 Warring over fish in the twenty-first century might seem an unlikely proposition. But the deployment of four Royal Navy ships to\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2472,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2471\/revisions\/2472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}