Comparing The Cod Wars And The Turbot War

There have been many problems and hindrances when it comes to fishing disputes between counties. The Cod Wars and the Turbot War are two fine examples of a short so called ‘war’ between counties such as England and Iceland, as well as Canada and Spain. Fish are a huge commodity to certain countries in particular, the likes of Scotland and Iceland. Therefore certain counties will go to extreme measures in order to protect their fishing rights. For example Iceland fish exports are 40% of their total exports. To back this up have been three Cod Wars between England and Iceland overall, this justifies how important fish are to Iceland as a nation. Iceland are willing to ‘fight’ in order to protect their fishing rights. Fish being an important

The EEZ ‘is a concept adopted at the Third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (1982), whereby a coastal State assumes jurisdiction over the exploration and exploitation of marine resources in its adjacent section of the continental shelf, taken to be a band extending 200 miles from the shore.’ (Directorate). In the past pre the formation UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea) shoreline countries could claim up to 3 nautical miles of sea from their coastland. (Hickman). For the Turbot War between Canada and Spain there were also similar issues over territory. The Canadian fish market was poor and fish stocks were very low at the time of 1995 when the Turbot War occurred. The Canadians did not take lightly to the Spanish fishing illegally and it was inevitable that a ‘war’ would break out due to the low fish stocks in Canadian waters. Many general lessons can be taken from both of these fishing ‘wars’ which will be discussed. How and why some of these disputes end up turning into conflict will be examined as well as the outcomes and how these wars are

September 1st 1958 was the first day of the Cod War between the United Kingdon and Iceland. (Johannesson, pg543). Iceland as a country decided to extend their fishing limit to 12 miles and this caused uproar, especially in the eyes of the British. Iceland would always be viewed upon as a poor country, they thought that if they extended their fishing limit from 4 to 12 miles that they could make more money for their economy. At first the relationship between Britain and Iceland was quite positive, the British found that water outside the 4 nautical mile limit from Iceland satisfying as they found their own freedom there where they would not be interrupted from their fishing duties. Eventually the British accepted the 12 mile limit. The Cod war that took place was not necessarily a war, it was more a conflict between two nations. Violence at sea tends not to be as chaotic as on land, although in some cases, weapons can be used to apply force. Icelandic fishermen began to shoot at a British vessel that was coming into their EEZ in order to get them to get out of their zone. (Britishseafishing.co.uk). This emphasises the dependence that Iceland have on fishing, it demonstrates the crazy tactics that they are not afraid to use in order to protect their EEZ. It shows what the Icelanders were willing to do and sometimes these crazy tactics work, which it did for