WEBVTT - SYMHC Classics: The Cod Wars 0:00:02.320 --> 0:00:05.480 Happy Saturday, everybody. I am Tracy V. Wilson and I'm 0:00:05.480 --> 0:00:08.920 Holly Fry. An interesting headline caught my eye this week. 0:00:09.200 --> 0:00:12.920 It was that the Icelandic Coastguard vessel a Year is 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:16.640 being sold after fifty years of service. It's being sold 0:00:16.680 --> 0:00:19.240 because it has fallen into disuse over the last couple 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:22.560 of years. And this headline caught my eye not just 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:26.000 because I've been really, really nostalgic for a trip I 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:28.840 took to Iceland a few years back, but also because 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:31.760 this vessel played a major part in the Cod Wars, 0:00:32.320 --> 0:00:35.640 which took place between Iceland and the UK. Our previous 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:39.239 episode on the Cod Wars came out on October and 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:41.159 this news gave us a good excuse to put it 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:48.440 right back into everybody's feeds. So enjoy. Welcome to Stuff 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.240 you missed in History Class. A production of I Heart 0:00:51.320 --> 0:01:01.360 Radio Hello and Welcome to the Pod asked I'm Tracy B. 0:01:01.520 --> 0:01:05.440 Wilson and I'm Holly Frying. When I was in Iceland 0:01:05.520 --> 0:01:08.240 back in the spring, I learned a very tiny bit 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.959 about the Cod Wars. Uh. Long time listeners to the 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:15.200 show will probably notice some similarities between the thing that 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:17.880 we're going to talk about today and the Chesapeake Bay 0:01:17.920 --> 0:01:21.559 Oyster Wars, which we talked about back in But while 0:01:21.600 --> 0:01:25.160 the Chesapeake Bay conflict was mostly confined to the states 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:29.959 of Virginia and Maryland, the Cod Wars were an international 0:01:30.080 --> 0:01:33.320 dispute that wound up having a lot more long lasting 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:37.360 ramifications in both the United Kingdom and in Iceland. So 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:39.319 after I got home from the Strip where I learned 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:42.400 that the Cod Wars had happened, I put them on 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.560 the potential episode list, and then all of a sudden, 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.000 over the last week or so, multiple other people, sort 0:01:49.040 --> 0:01:51.920 of apropos of nothing, said hey, would you talk about 0:01:51.920 --> 0:01:56.040 the Cod Wars um and that included most recently Gemma 0:01:56.080 --> 0:01:58.680 and Steve. So I thought, okay, I guess I'll put 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:00.560 cod Wars at the top of the list. Have been 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:03.040 kind of languishing there, and now we're gonna do it. 0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.400 I do want to be clear that this is definitely 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.840 not the only fishing dispute that has ever happened in 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:14.120 these particular waters, but it's definitely one of the most famous. 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:16.800 Uh and in some ways it's the weirdest and the 0:02:16.840 --> 0:02:19.840 most comical, even though it was not actually funny to 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:24.639 the people it was happening to like it sounds funny, 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.919 but a lot of people's livelihoods were deeply at stake 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:32.639 in the middle of this thing. That sounds sort of comedic. 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:37.360 So to give you the setup, Iceland and the United 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:41.359 Kingdom are two relatively small island nations. The UK is 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:45.000 a little more than nine thousand square miles and Iceland 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:47.560 is a little less than forty thousand square miles. That's 0:02:47.600 --> 0:02:51.079 about two hundred forty three thousand square kilometers and one 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:56.119 hundred three thousand square kilometers respectively. The UK, however, has 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.679 much more habitable land than Iceland does. The middle of 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:02.960 ice Land is mountainous, and it's covered in glaciers and 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.280 also in many places volcanic, so nearly all of its 0:03:06.280 --> 0:03:11.720 population lives relatively close to the coast. It is completely 0:03:11.840 --> 0:03:16.359 unsurprising that two relatively small island nations, one of which 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.720 is only really habitable along the coastline, have historically relied 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.480 on fishing, both as an industry and for the nation's cuisine. 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:28.720 As we discussed in our podcast about the volcanic eruption 0:03:28.760 --> 0:03:32.960 on the island of Hamming, fishing is critically important to 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:37.760 Iceland's economy today. The fishing industry and Iceland employees about 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.440 eleven thousand people, which is a little more than four 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:45.000 percent of Iceland's total workforce, and the fishing industry directly 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:49.000 contributes to about eleven percent of Iceland of the icelandic 0:03:49.040 --> 0:03:55.840 GDP and indirectly a full quarter of Iceland's GDP. About 0:03:56.040 --> 0:03:59.920 fort of Iceland's export earnings come from fish today, with 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:04.240 cod being a primary export, and before the nineteen seventies 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:11.280 almost of Iceland's exports were fish. Meanwhile, Britain's fishing industry 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:15.040 employs a little under twelve thousand fishers today, so about 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:18.440 the same size as Iceland's industry, but because the UK's 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:21.359 population and economy are so much larger, it's really a 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.839 much smaller proportion of the UK economy as a whole. 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.880 The UK has a population of sixty four million compared 0:04:28.920 --> 0:04:32.640 to three hundred and twenty three thousand in Iceland. Marine 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.840 fishing is about zero point oh five percent of the 0:04:36.880 --> 0:04:40.640 British GDP, and all forms of fishing together make up 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:44.440 about zero point zero seven percent of the British GDP. 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:50.159 Prior to the nineteen fifties, though fishing was a much 0:04:50.279 --> 0:04:53.800 bigger part of the British economy, especially in fishing ports 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:58.560 cities like Hull, Gramsby and Fleetwood. In these ports, fishing 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:01.919 trawlers were the prime arey employer and most of the 0:05:01.960 --> 0:05:04.880 fishing fleet that sailed from these ports did what's known 0:05:04.920 --> 0:05:08.400 as distant water fishing, so boats would leave these ports 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:11.000 in Britain and they would travel hundreds of miles to 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:16.440 fish in the waters around Iceland. In addition to catching 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:20.080 a lot of cod, Britain eight and continues to eat, 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:22.960 for that matter, a lot of cod. In the nineteen 0:05:23.000 --> 0:05:26.880 fifties and nineteen sixties, four d and thirty thousand tons 0:05:26.960 --> 0:05:30.760 of cod were being eaten in Britain annually, overwhelmingly in 0:05:30.800 --> 0:05:33.920 the form of fish and chips. Britain continues to eat 0:05:33.960 --> 0:05:37.000 more cod than anywhere else in the world, a third 0:05:37.120 --> 0:05:40.240 of the cod in the world, and of the cod 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:45.920 caught in European waters. So yeah, the Iceland and Britain 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:48.560 were united by the fact that there's lots of cod 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:54.040 around Iceland and Brittain was eating almost all of it, 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.800 almost all the cod because fish and chips, I mean, 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.520 it's it's delicious and also kind of astounding just how 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:07.280 much was being eaten. Another important piece of background information, 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.120 and all of this story has to do with the 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.599 idea of international waters and how nations get to decide 0:06:12.640 --> 0:06:16.520 which parts of the ocean are There's the idea that 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.359 a nation with the coastline has rights to a certain 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.240 amount of the ocean around it. Has existed for centuries, 0:06:22.680 --> 0:06:27.559 and a nation's territorial waters extend a certain distance past 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.400 its coast and then beyond that our international waters. Starting 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:34.440 in the seventeen hundreds in Europe and the America's, a 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:40.680 nation's territorial waters typically extended about three miles past the coastline, 0:06:41.000 --> 0:06:45.440 although there were definitely exceptions, with nations claiming more or less. 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.839 Prior to its independence in nineteen four, Iceland was a 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.200 part of Denmark, and according to the Anglo Danish Territorial 0:06:55.240 --> 0:06:58.800 Waters Agreement, it, like so many other nations, followed that 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:02.159 three mile limit. That agreement was set to expire in 0:07:02.279 --> 0:07:06.080 nineteen fifty one, But when Iceland became independent from Denmark, 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.039 it got to work setting its own terms for where 0:07:09.040 --> 0:07:15.200 other nations could fish immediately. Iceland had two primary motivations 0:07:15.240 --> 0:07:19.800 for reevaluating its fishing boundaries. One was that fishing was 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.119 so enormously critical to its own economy that it wanted 0:07:23.160 --> 0:07:26.400 to make sure its own fishing fleet had the greatest advantage. 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:30.800 Iceland sort of viewed this situation as a zero sum game. 0:07:31.000 --> 0:07:33.640 Other nations that were taking fish out of the waters 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:37.720 around Iceland were taking them from Iceland because Iceland had 0:07:37.800 --> 0:07:41.840 so few other industries or national or natural resources to 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:45.400 add to its economy. The other was that Iceland was 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.840 becoming increasingly concerned about the health of the fish stocks 0:07:48.840 --> 0:07:52.240 around it and the threat of overfishing, so banning other 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:55.680 nations from fishing closer to its shores was a way 0:07:55.720 --> 0:08:01.200 to try to keep Icelandic fishers fishing while ideal lowering 0:08:01.280 --> 0:08:05.600 the risk of depleting those fish populations. As a result, 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:10.480 on May fifteenth, nineteen fifty two, Iceland extended the line 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.880 from three miles to four And this wasn't the first 0:08:13.880 --> 0:08:17.560 push of its territorial water since becoming independent, but it 0:08:17.680 --> 0:08:20.120 was the first extension that affected a part of the 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:24.160 sea that Britain had been using for its fishing. Yes, 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:26.760 some of the prior extension was more to the north, 0:08:26.800 --> 0:08:28.920 which was not as much of a British fishing ground. 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.920 Britain was not happy about this change. There was more 0:08:33.960 --> 0:08:37.160 shelter available in bad weather three miles out compared to 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:39.680 four miles out. And then, of course there was just 0:08:39.720 --> 0:08:42.360 the principle of the thing. Britain's who had been making 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:45.960 their livelihoods through fishing for generations and who lived in 0:08:46.000 --> 0:08:49.520 port cities where fishing was the biggest industry were basically 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:51.560 being shut out of a strip of the sea that 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.959 they'd historically had access to. When Iceland said its new 0:08:56.000 --> 0:08:59.080 line at four miles, flags flew at half mast in 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:03.560 British distant water fishing ports. The Grimsby Evening Telegraph called 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:08.120 it black Thursday. In spite of this new law, the 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.520 four mile zone around Iceland did not make that big 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:15.280 of a difference to British distant distant water fishing boats. 0:09:15.640 --> 0:09:18.720 A lot of them had already been crossing the three 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.920 mile line when fish were scarce beyond it. A number 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.080 of captains and owners also thought that the fine that 0:09:25.200 --> 0:09:28.280 came with crossing that four mile line was worth the 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.439 risk if it meant better fishing on the other side 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:34.120 of the line. All in all, even though there was 0:09:34.120 --> 0:09:36.520 a bit of cat and mouse darting around the line, 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:40.680 British captains and crews surrendered when they realized they were 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:44.720 caught in ICELANDIC Coastguard personnel were always honest and faring 0:09:44.760 --> 0:09:49.280 court cases over illegal fishing. Aside from some tomfoolery, people 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:52.520 on both sides of this dispute were generally respectful and 0:09:52.600 --> 0:09:55.760 professional about it. Yeah, and in spite of all the 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.360 like the flying the flags that half mast and the 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:02.160 s ring back and forth across the line where people 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:04.400 weren't really supposed to be like, you know, when the 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.480 coast Guard showed up and was like, you're not supposed 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.720 to be here, they would have been like, yeah, you're 0:10:08.760 --> 0:10:15.760 you gottess. The UK also took the very reasonable course 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.600 of action of taking their dispute with Iceland before the 0:10:19.640 --> 0:10:24.360 International Court of Justice. When Iceland's four mile limit was upheld, 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.800 Britain responded by banning Icelandic fishing vessels from landing their 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:32.680 fish in Britain. Since Britain, as we said earlier, was 0:10:32.760 --> 0:10:37.040 buying most of Iceland's cod, and I mean British British 0:10:37.120 --> 0:10:40.240 cod catches were not nearly enough to keep the nation 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:43.720 supplied in fish and chips. This basically was an economic 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.280 sanction sanction against Iceland, but Iceland did not back down 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:51.040 and this was only the first of several times that 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.079 Iceland would move its fishing boundary, and we're going to 0:10:54.200 --> 0:10:57.600 talk about where things stopped being so sort of cordial 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.640 and respectful and started to really get ugly. After we 0:11:00.760 --> 0:11:17.559 have a brief sponsor break. In ninety eight, the international 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:21.320 community participated in the first International Conference on the Law 0:11:21.440 --> 0:11:25.000 of the Sea. The u n's International Law Commission had 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:30.040 been discussing and evaluating maritime international law for nearly a decade, 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:33.680 but this was the first conference that was specifically devoted 0:11:33.720 --> 0:11:41.000 to international maritime law. Eighties six states participated in this conference. Fishing, 0:11:41.280 --> 0:11:43.559 we should point out, was certainly not the only thing 0:11:43.640 --> 0:11:48.160 being discussed at the conference. Resolutions were adopted regarding nuclear tests, 0:11:48.360 --> 0:11:53.160 radioactive pollution of the oceans, and conservation, and various smaller 0:11:53.240 --> 0:11:56.880 nations suggested a major expansion of the commonly used three 0:11:56.880 --> 0:12:01.560 mile limit between international and territorial waters. The new proposed 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:06.520 limit a twelve mile economic exclusion zone around a nation's coast. 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:11.160 Most larger nations resisted this idea for reasons ranging from 0:12:11.240 --> 0:12:15.359 economic unfairness to concerns that their navies could not effectively 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:20.760 maneuver or patrol with that much of the sea off limits. However, 0:12:21.080 --> 0:12:24.760 when Iceland then expanded its exclusionary zone to twelve miles, 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.640 and part of its argument was that that twelve miles 0:12:28.679 --> 0:12:32.680 was eventually going to be international law anyway. And while 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.600 that previous move from three miles to four miles had 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.880 been met with flags at half masted in Britain's port towns, 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:43.800 the jump to twelve miles was genuinely alarming. The zone 0:12:43.840 --> 0:12:47.480 between four and twelve miles from Iceland's coast was prime 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:52.040 fishing territory for Britain's distant water fishing fleet. Shutting Britain 0:12:52.080 --> 0:12:55.040 out of twelve miles around Iceland had the potential to 0:12:55.120 --> 0:13:00.160 completely disrupt the fishing industry. Aside from really genuine win 0:13:00.320 --> 0:13:04.320 concerns about the British economy, especially in these sports cities, 0:13:04.640 --> 0:13:08.960 Britain was also really frustrated on principle. I understand this. 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:13.520 I'm a person who gets colossally frustrated on principle, as 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:16.720 had been the case with that four mile line. The 0:13:16.800 --> 0:13:19.960 twelve mile line was cutting Brittain out of waters that 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:23.440 it had historically had access to and felt entitled to. 0:13:24.280 --> 0:13:26.400 And then there was an emotional way to all of it, 0:13:26.480 --> 0:13:29.040 and the cities that were home to Britain's distant water 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:32.160 fishing fleets. Fishing was really at the heart of the 0:13:32.200 --> 0:13:36.480 community and of people's identities. So pushing out distant water 0:13:36.600 --> 0:13:39.280 fishing felt like it was stripping people of their way 0:13:39.320 --> 0:13:41.640 of life and of something that they felt like was 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:46.360 a core part of who they were. Also, there's the 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:50.320 whole fish and chip thing again, which is also part 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:54.800 of like the identity issue. Yes, Like in the United States, 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.280 fish and chips and a lot of places they're just 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:03.000 like they're just sort of stand pub food, right, But 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:06.600 in the fifties and sixties and Britain, fish and chips 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:11.720 was really a working class staple, and like chippies were 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:14.640 places that that sold fish and chips, and like there's 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:19.960 a whole cultural layer to the existence in the consumption 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:23.760 of of fish and chips that um does not have 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.520 the quite the same weight. And most of the United States, 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.280 yeah uh, And the UK was not the only nation 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:36.600 affected by this expansion in Iceland's territorial waters. Belgium, West 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.600 Germany and the Faroe Islands were among the other nations 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.800 fishing in that same area, But it was the British 0:14:42.800 --> 0:14:45.200 fishing fleet that was making the most use of it 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:48.440 among the international community, and it was Britain that became 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:51.880 the most vocal in wanting continued access to that four 0:14:52.000 --> 0:14:56.440 to twelve mile zone. Those cat and mouse shenanigans that 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:59.960 had happened at the four mile line kicked up several 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:04.080 role notches in the four to twelve mile zone around Iceland. 0:15:04.640 --> 0:15:08.640 As one might expect, Iceland deployed its Coastguard to try 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:12.600 to enforce the policy, and it allowed officials to board 0:15:12.640 --> 0:15:16.080 British ships and arrest their crews for fishing in waters 0:15:16.080 --> 0:15:20.120 where they were not supposed to be. In response, Britain 0:15:20.160 --> 0:15:23.840 deployed ships from the Royal Navy to protect the trawlers, 0:15:23.960 --> 0:15:27.440 essentially mandating that the trawlers fishing areas where the Royal 0:15:27.520 --> 0:15:31.120 Navy was patrolling, and the trawlers used nets to try 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.400 to keep Icelandic inspectors from boarding, as well as springing 0:15:34.440 --> 0:15:38.280 boarding parties with hoses and trying to use spears to 0:15:38.360 --> 0:15:42.920 puncture the rubber dighis the Coastguard used for boarding. When 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:45.920 a trawler was boarded, they'd often call in the Royal 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:49.160 Navy to assist, and on at least one occasion, the 0:15:49.280 --> 0:15:52.400 Royal Navy then refused to let the Icelandic Coast Guard 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:56.680 officials go back to their own vessel, instead kept them 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.760 on board as guests in quotation marks of the Crown. 0:16:01.400 --> 0:16:04.200 One boarding party was eventually put into a little boat 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:06.480 off the coast of keef Levik and allowed to row 0:16:06.520 --> 0:16:09.880 back to shore there. And that's really irritated the people 0:16:10.200 --> 0:16:13.520 that were, uh, we're working at the NATO base in 0:16:13.640 --> 0:16:15.680 kef Levik, because they were like, what do you mean 0:16:15.720 --> 0:16:19.040 there is a British warship right there that just dropped 0:16:19.040 --> 0:16:23.800 you off in the water. Because Iceland had about six 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:27.000 gun boats compared to the thirty seven Royal Navy ships 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:31.040 that Britain had deployed, Iceland didn't really feel comfortable making 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:35.080 a direct assault on the British force. Instead, Iceland kept 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.240 thorough records of the names and numbers of all of 0:16:38.240 --> 0:16:41.080 the British ships that broke the twelve mile limit. I 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:43.640 kind of love fighting it with bureaucracy and I don't 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:50.280 even understand why. Yeah, yeah, this distribute wound up being 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:54.760 settled with a compromise in nineteen sixty one. Britain ultimately 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:58.120 agreed to respect the twelve mile limit and exchange for 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:01.080 a three year period to phase out the distant water 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.959 fishing in the twelve mile zone. Once this agreement was reached, 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.000 Iceland destroyed all those records of who all had been 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.879 illegally fishing in the twelve mile zone, which I also 0:17:11.119 --> 0:17:15.159 am kind of charmed by. Yes, it's like this is 0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.639 going on your permanent record. Okay, now we're cool. We 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:22.640 could get rid of that permanent record. Uh. In the agreement, 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.240 Iceland also acknowledged that it would continue to consider extending 0:17:26.240 --> 0:17:29.760 the border even further, but would give Britain advanced notice 0:17:29.840 --> 0:17:33.520 if this were to happen. Quote, the Icelandic Government will 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:36.280 continue to work for the implementation of the al Thing 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:40.760 Resolution of five May nineteen fifty nine regarding the extension 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:44.560 of fisheries jurisdiction around Iceland, but shall give to the 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:48.800 United Kingdom Government six months notice of such extension, and 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.000 in case of a dispute in relation to such extension, 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:55.399 the matter shall, at the request of either party, be 0:17:55.520 --> 0:18:00.000 referred to the International Court of Justice. Yes, those based 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:03.480 referring to a resolution that had been put out a 0:18:03.520 --> 0:18:06.600 couple of years before about possibly having an even bigger 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:10.640 exclusion zone. And then on July fourteenth of nineteen seventy one, 0:18:11.200 --> 0:18:14.320 the government of Iceland released a new policy statement which said, 0:18:14.400 --> 0:18:17.560 quote the fisheries agreements with the United Kingdom and the 0:18:17.560 --> 0:18:21.639 Federal German Republic I'll be terminated and a resolution be 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.360 made about an extension of fishery limit up to fifty 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:29.240 nautical miles from the baselines, effective not later than one 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:32.800 September ninety two. So at this point we've gone from 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:37.400 three miles to four miles, to twelve miles to fifty miles. Yeah, 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:39.760 it's a big jump. I can imagine if you are 0:18:39.840 --> 0:18:44.080 part of the fishing industry, the knee jerk reaction could 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:47.480 be irate at that point. Uh, And that would explain 0:18:47.520 --> 0:18:50.159 why this is where things got really really heated between 0:18:50.160 --> 0:18:53.480 the UK and Iceland. The United Kingdom once again took 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.520 its dispute to the International Court of Justice in the Hague, 0:18:56.800 --> 0:19:00.040 which found in Britain's favor, but Iceland argued that the 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.800 court did not have jurisdiction. Iceland was at this point 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:09.280 incredibly frustrated and alarmed over the condition of its fishing stocks. 0:19:09.800 --> 0:19:14.439 Stocks of the icelandic herring had dropped precipitously almost to nothing, 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:17.760 and Iceland was concerned that cod were headed for this 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:22.600 same fate. They had made repeated calls for international discussions 0:19:22.640 --> 0:19:26.320 on conservation of fish stocks and sustainable fishing practices, and 0:19:26.359 --> 0:19:29.080 none of that had gotten enough attention for Iceland to 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:33.120 really feel secure in the future of of a nation 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:36.520 that was basically dependent on fishing. Like at this point 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.000 and even still today in a lot of ways, if 0:19:39.040 --> 0:19:42.600 the if the fishing industry in Iceland is gone, Iceland 0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.040 as a nation cannot survive. And so even though there 0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:48.760 were some nations that were willing to talk about more 0:19:49.480 --> 0:19:53.639 conservation oriented fishing practices at this point in the seventies, 0:19:53.680 --> 0:19:56.760 Iceland was like, no, really, we will die as a 0:19:56.840 --> 0:19:59.840 nation if we don't look after these fish. And to 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:02.879 make matters worse from the British point of view, also 0:20:03.000 --> 0:20:06.680 in ninety two, the United Kingdom joined the Common Market, 0:20:07.200 --> 0:20:09.960 and this was basically an approach by the European Economic 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:12.760 Community that gave all its members equal access to the 0:20:12.880 --> 0:20:17.840 territorial waters of all the other members after a grace period. Iceland, 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.159 not being a member of the European Economic Community, was 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:24.199 not affected, but the UK was concerned about what it 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:26.439 would mean for its own fishing industry to give the 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.320 rest of the European economic community access to its fishing 0:20:30.320 --> 0:20:34.520 grounds the UK, to the UK fishing fleet, those waters 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:39.719 off the coast of Iceland became even more important. So 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.040 the UK once again deployed the Royal Navy to protect 0:20:43.119 --> 0:20:46.879 its distant water trawlers. And during the previous dispute, the 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.719 trawlers were basically supposed to stick with the navy, and 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:51.960 now they were trying to do it the other way around. 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:54.640 The trawlers would go whether where they needed to fish, 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.399 and the Navy would follow them to protect them. In 0:20:58.440 --> 0:21:02.119 other words, the UK had decided not to respect that 0:21:02.200 --> 0:21:04.760 fifty mile line, and we're going to talk about the 0:21:04.800 --> 0:21:07.600 fallout from that a little bit more after we once 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:24.960 again paused for a word from a sponsor. The first 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:28.119 day that British ships made their way across the newly 0:21:28.240 --> 0:21:31.919 established fifty mile line around Iceland, they covered up their 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:35.840 names and numbers on their ships and hoisted pirate flags. 0:21:36.600 --> 0:21:40.480 Iceland's coast Guard was mostly amused at this course of action, 0:21:40.880 --> 0:21:43.480 because at this point they had been patrolling these waters 0:21:43.560 --> 0:21:46.760 with these British trawlers for years, and they were sort 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:49.160 of like, do you think we really can't recognize your ship? 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:51.280 Without the name on it, like, we know what your 0:21:51.280 --> 0:21:54.119 ship looks like, we know who you are. It's the 0:21:54.160 --> 0:21:58.200 clark can't Glasses disguise of the sea. It was absolutely 0:21:58.240 --> 0:22:00.840 the Clark can't glasses to sect the guys of the sea. 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:06.159 And this time around things really did start though, as 0:22:06.240 --> 0:22:09.159 much as we're laughing now, they became very serious and 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.520 physical between Iceland and the UK. Towards the end of 0:22:12.520 --> 0:22:16.080 the previous dispute, Iceland had developed a trawling net cutter, 0:22:16.600 --> 0:22:20.080 and this was essentially a minesweeper modified with a road 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:23.119 grading blade that was dragged through the water behind a 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.560 boat so when it hit the high tension trawling wires, 0:22:26.560 --> 0:22:29.960 it would cut right through them. This was the part 0:22:30.040 --> 0:22:32.520 I learned at a museum in Iceland where I was like, oh, 0:22:33.240 --> 0:22:36.920 the Icelandic Coast Guard was just cutting through trawling nuts. 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:42.600 That's fascinating. However, the cruise of the British trawlers were 0:22:42.720 --> 0:22:47.080 horrified and alarmed at this invention. The wires of these 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.080 trawling nuts, I mean, these are enormous nets that are 0:22:50.160 --> 0:22:52.280 under the water and they fill up with fish. They 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:55.720 are under a whole lot of tension. So it was 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:59.080 within the realm of possibility that a wire that had 0:22:59.119 --> 0:23:02.720 been cut could re bound and literally cut someone in half. 0:23:03.520 --> 0:23:07.680 Iceland insisted that this cutting was happening far enough below 0:23:07.720 --> 0:23:10.119 the surface of the water that this was not a risk, 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.840 and there wasn't a risk to human life because all 0:23:12.880 --> 0:23:15.600 of this energy that was being dissipated when the wire 0:23:15.680 --> 0:23:19.600 was cut basically was was dissipated in the traveling through 0:23:19.600 --> 0:23:24.520 the water. Um Even so, even if if there wasn't 0:23:24.760 --> 0:23:26.800 a risk, and I think you can argue that either way, 0:23:27.160 --> 0:23:30.359 the loss of the trawling net itself, and of the 0:23:30.400 --> 0:23:33.600 time and energy that you had put into putting it 0:23:33.640 --> 0:23:36.560 together and deploying it, and whatever time you had spent 0:23:36.600 --> 0:23:40.520 fishing with it basically meant that people were losing a 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:46.000 lot of work and equipment in this process. The Icelandic 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:50.960 Coastguard was vastly outnumbered. It had six Coastguard vessels plus 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:55.119 two Polish built trawlers retrofitted for the purpose. Britain, on 0:23:55.160 --> 0:23:57.479 the other hand, had a total of twenty nine ships 0:23:57.520 --> 0:24:00.359 earmarked for the purpose, was six to nine of them 0:24:00.400 --> 0:24:04.280 in Icelandic water at any given time. In addition to 0:24:04.320 --> 0:24:07.920 those frigates were seven supply ships, nine tug boats and 0:24:08.119 --> 0:24:13.760 three artillery ships to protect its forty trawlers. Soon, in 0:24:13.840 --> 0:24:19.760 spite of being so heavily outnumbered, Icelandic vessels started intentionally 0:24:20.040 --> 0:24:24.080 ramming British Royal Navy ships and trawlers. This actually there 0:24:24.160 --> 0:24:26.639 was one collision that did lead to the death of 0:24:26.680 --> 0:24:31.400 an Icelandic officer. Britain responded by trying to update its 0:24:31.400 --> 0:24:35.280 trawler fleet by radio about the positions of Iceland's vessels, 0:24:35.640 --> 0:24:40.199 So the Icelandic Coastguards started recording Britain's transmissions on the 0:24:40.240 --> 0:24:43.480 positions of where the Icelandic vessels were and then replaying 0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:47.360 them at a later date to so confusion. When Britain 0:24:47.400 --> 0:24:50.159 realized that that was happening, their ships began to spread 0:24:50.160 --> 0:24:53.760 the word by radio to disregard the prior message, so 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:57.159 the Icelandic Coast Guard recorded that too to replay it 0:24:57.280 --> 0:25:01.920 later on. It's a a ghost arms at that point 0:25:01.920 --> 0:25:06.879 where they're doing like these false sounds. Escapes May nine 0:25:07.200 --> 0:25:12.080 seventy three and Icelandic ship shelled a British trawler. Also 0:25:12.160 --> 0:25:15.600 in May, Iceland banned British planes from landing at Keflavik 0:25:15.680 --> 0:25:20.200 Air Base. That October, the UK and Iceland finally agreed 0:25:20.240 --> 0:25:23.320 to limit the number of British ships in icelandic waters, 0:25:23.800 --> 0:25:28.280 limit the size of the catch, and thankfully stop ramming 0:25:28.280 --> 0:25:32.359