WEBVTT - The Cod Wars 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.880 This episode is brought to you by square Space. Start 0:00:02.920 --> 0:00:06.640 building your website today at squarespace dot com. Enter offer 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:09.440 code History at check out to get ten percent off 0:00:09.760 --> 0:00:12.840 square Space. Build it beautiful. I am Scott and I'm 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:15.280 Ben and we're from Car Stuff. We're the podcast that 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:21.200 covers everything that flutes, flies, swims, or drives, adventures, thrills, chills, literally, planes, 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:24.400 trains and automobils. That's right, and you can find all 0:00:24.400 --> 0:00:28.360 of our episodes on Google Play, Spotify, iTunes, and really 0:00:28.360 --> 0:00:33.440 anywhere else you get your podcast. Welcome to Stuff you 0:00:33.479 --> 0:00:43.000 missed in History Class from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello, 0:00:43.280 --> 0:00:46.720 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.640 I'm Holly Frye. When I was in Iceland back in 0:00:50.720 --> 0:00:53.320 the spring, I learned a very tiny bit about the 0:00:53.360 --> 0:00:57.160 Cod Wars. Uh. Long time listeners to the show will 0:00:57.200 --> 0:01:00.200 probably notice some similarities between the thing that going to 0:01:00.280 --> 0:01:03.680 talk about today and the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Wars, which 0:01:03.680 --> 0:01:07.199 we talked about back in But while the Chesapeake Bay 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:11.200 Conflict was mostly confined to the states of Virginia and Maryland, 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:16.000 the Cod Wars were an international dispute that wound up 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:19.400 having a lot more long lasting ramifications in both the 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:22.760 United Kingdom and in Iceland. So after I got home 0:01:22.800 --> 0:01:24.839 from the strip where I learned that the cod Wars 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:28.520 had happened, I put them on the potential episode list, 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:31.240 and then all of a sudden, over the last week 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:34.840 or so, multiple other people, sort of apropos of nothing, 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.720 said hey, would you talk about the cod wars um 0:01:38.760 --> 0:01:42.600 and that included most recently Gemma and Steve. So I thought, Okay, 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:44.360 I guess I'll put cod Wars at the top of 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:46.640 the list. It had been kind of languishing there, and 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.200 now we're gonna do it. I do want to be 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:52.720 clear that this is definitely not the only fishing dispute 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.880 that has ever happened in these particular waters, but it's 0:01:56.920 --> 0:01:59.800 definitely one of the most famous. Uh And in some 0:02:00.040 --> 0:02:02.840 ways it's the weirdest and the most comical, even though 0:02:02.840 --> 0:02:06.280 it was not actually funny to the people it was 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:10.840 happening to like it sounds funny, but a lot of 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.840 people's livelihoods were deeply at stake in the middle of 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:19.720 this thing that sounds sort of comedic. So to give 0:02:19.720 --> 0:02:22.919 you the setup, Iceland and the United Kingdom are two 0:02:23.000 --> 0:02:26.520 relatively small island nations. The UK is a little more 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.799 than ninety four thousand square miles and Iceland is a 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.640 little less than forty thousand square miles. That's about two 0:02:32.720 --> 0:02:36.080 hundred and forty three thousand square kilometers and one hundred 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:41.200 three thousand square kilometers respectively. The UK, however, has much 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:44.920 more habitable land than Iceland does. The middle of Iceland 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.040 is mountainous, and it's covered in glaciers and also in 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:52.120 many places volcanic, so nearly all of its population lives 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:57.600 relatively close to the coast. It is completely unsurprising that 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.480 two relatively small island nations, one of which is only 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:06.160 really habitable along the coastline, have historically relied on fishing, 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:10.079 both as an industry and for the nation's cuisine. As 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:13.480 we discussed in our podcast about the volcanic eruption on 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:19.960 the island of Hamming, fishing is critically important to Iceland's economy. Today, 0:03:20.040 --> 0:03:23.639 the fishing industry and Iceland employees about eleven thousand people, 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:26.280 which is a little more than four percent of Iceland's 0:03:26.320 --> 0:03:30.960 total workforce, and the fishing industry directly contributes to about 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:35.960 eleven percent of Iceland of the icelandic GDP and indirectly 0:03:36.640 --> 0:03:42.240 a full quarter of Iceland's GDP. About forty of Iceland's 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:45.440 export earnings come from fish today, with cod being a 0:03:45.480 --> 0:03:50.920 primary export, and before the nineteen seventies almost nine of 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:56.560 Iceland's exports were fish. Meanwhile, Britain's fishing industry employs a 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.000 little under twelve thousand fishers today, so about the same 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.440 sizes Iceland's industry, but because the UK's population and economy 0:04:04.440 --> 0:04:07.400 are so much larger, it's really a much smaller proportion 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:11.000 of the UK economy as a whole. The UK has 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.240 a population of sixty four million compared to three hundred 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:18.320 and twenty three thousand in Iceland. Marine fishing is about 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:23.000 zero point oh five percent of the British GDP, and 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:26.479 all forms of fishing together make up about zero point 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:31.480 zero seven percent of the British GDP. Prior to the 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.640 nineteen fifties, though, fishing was a much bigger part of 0:04:35.640 --> 0:04:39.400 the British economy, especially in fishing ports cities like Hull, 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:44.240 Gramsby and Fleetwood. In these ports, fishing trawlers were the 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:48.000 primary employer, and most of the fishing fleet that sailed 0:04:48.080 --> 0:04:50.919 from these ports did what's known as distant water fishing, 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:53.760 so boats would leave these ports in Britain and they 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:57.320 would travel hundreds of miles to fish in the waters 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.839 around Iceland. In addition to catching a lot of cod, 0:05:02.440 --> 0:05:05.599 Brittain eight and continues to eat, for that matter, a 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:09.159 lot of cod. In the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:12.920 four and thirty thousand tons of cod were being eaten 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.760 in Britain annually, overwhelmingly in the form of fish and chips. 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:20.159 Britain continues to eat more cod than anywhere else in 0:05:20.200 --> 0:05:23.080 the world, a third of the cod in the world, 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:28.480 and of the cod caught in European waters. So yeah, 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:32.080 the Iceland and Britain were united by the fact that 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:35.920 there's lots of cod around Iceland and Brittain was eating 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:42.560 almost all of it, almost all the cod because fish 0:05:42.600 --> 0:05:45.920 and chips. I mean, it's it's delicious and also kind 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:50.400 of astounding just how much was being eaten. Another important 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.240 piece of background information in all of this story has 0:05:53.279 --> 0:05:56.039 to do with the idea of international waters and how 0:05:56.120 --> 0:05:58.680 nations get to decide which parts of the ocean are 0:05:58.800 --> 0:06:03.080 There's the idea that a nation with the coastline has 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:05.400 rights to a certain amount of the ocean around it 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:10.760 has existed for centuries, and a nation's territorial waters extend 0:06:10.880 --> 0:06:13.680 a certain distance past its coast and then beyond that 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:18.159 our international waters. Starting in the seventeen hundreds, in Europe 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:23.400 and the America's, a nation's territorial waters typically extended about 0:06:23.440 --> 0:06:27.560 three miles past the coastline, although there were definitely exceptions, 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:33.920 with nations claiming more or less. Prior to its independence 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:37.360 in nineteen forty four, Iceland was a part of Denmark, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.880 and according to the Anglo Danish Territorial Waters Agreement, it, 0:06:41.520 --> 0:06:44.440 like so many other nations, followed that three mile limit. 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.960 That agreement was set to expire in nineteen fifty one. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.520 But when Iceland became independent from Denmark, it got to 0:06:51.560 --> 0:06:54.560 work setting its own terms for where other nations could 0:06:54.600 --> 0:07:01.520 fish immediately. Iceland had two primary motivations for reevaluating its 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:06.120 fishing boundaries. One was that fishing was so enormously critical 0:07:06.160 --> 0:07:08.440 to its own economy that it wanted to make sure 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:12.240 its own fishing fleet had the greatest advantage. Iceland sort 0:07:12.280 --> 0:07:15.920 of viewed this situation as a zero sum game. Other 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.640 nations that were taking fish out of the waters around 0:07:18.640 --> 0:07:22.520 Iceland were taking them from Iceland because Iceland had so 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.920 few other industries or national or natural resources to add 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:30.440 to its economy. The other was that Iceland was becoming 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:33.840 increasingly concerned about the health of the fish stocks around 0:07:33.840 --> 0:07:37.520 it and the threat of overfishing, so banning other nations 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:40.440 from fishing closer to its shores was a way to 0:07:40.480 --> 0:07:45.960 try to keep Icelandic fishers fishing while ideally lowering the 0:07:46.080 --> 0:07:50.840 risk of depleting those fish populations. As a result, on 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:55.720 May fifteenth, ninety two, Iceland extended the line from three 0:07:55.760 --> 0:07:58.920 miles to four And this wasn't the first push of 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.440 its territorial water or since becoming independent, but it was 0:08:02.560 --> 0:08:05.040 the first extension that affected a part of the sea 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:08.960 that Britain had been using for its fishing. Yes, some 0:08:09.040 --> 0:08:11.680 of the prior extension was more to the north, which 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.520 was not as much of a British fishing ground. Britain 0:08:15.600 --> 0:08:19.000 was not happy about this change. There was more shelter 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.080 available in bad weather three miles out compared to four 0:08:22.080 --> 0:08:24.320 miles out. Uh And then, of course there was just 0:08:24.360 --> 0:08:27.000 the principle of the thing. Britain's who had been making 0:08:27.040 --> 0:08:30.600 their livelihoods through fishing for generations and who lived in 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.160 port cities where fishing was the biggest industry. We're basically 0:08:34.200 --> 0:08:36.200 being shut out of a strip of the sea that 0:08:36.240 --> 0:08:40.440 they had historically had access to. When Iceland said its 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:43.440 new line at four miles, flags flew at half mast 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:47.880 in British distant water fishing ports. The Grimsby Evening Telegraph 0:08:47.960 --> 0:08:52.559 called it black Thursday. In spite of this new law, 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.720 the four mile zone around Iceland did not make that 0:08:55.960 --> 0:08:59.880 big of a difference to British distant distant water fishing boats. 0:09:00.280 --> 0:09:03.360 A lot of them had already been crossing the three 0:09:03.360 --> 0:09:06.560 mile line when fish were scarce beyond it. A number 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.720 of captains and owners also thought that the fine that 0:09:09.840 --> 0:09:12.920 came with crossing that four mile line was worth the 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.079 risk if it meant better fishing on the other side 0:09:16.080 --> 0:09:18.760 of the line. All in all, even though there was 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.160 a bit of captain mouse darting around the line, British 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:25.680 captains and crews surrendered when they realized they were caught, 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:29.360 and Iceland a Coastguard personnel. We're always honest and faring 0:09:29.400 --> 0:09:33.920 court cases over illegal fishing. Aside from some tomfoolery, people 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.160 on both sides of this dispute were generally respectful and 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:40.400 professional about it. Yeah, and in spite of all the 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:43.040 like the flying the flags that half mast and the 0:09:44.120 --> 0:09:47.079 skittering back and forth across the line where people weren't 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.600 really supposed to be, like, you know, when the Coastguard 0:09:49.679 --> 0:09:51.520 showed up and was like, you're not supposed to be here, 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:57.840 they would have been like, yeah, you're you gottus. The 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.960 UK also took the very reasonable of course of action 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:05.240 of taking their dispute with Iceland before the International Court 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:09.520 of Justice. When Iceland's four mile limit was upheld, Britain 0:10:09.600 --> 0:10:13.720 responded by banning Icelandic fishing vessels from landing their fish 0:10:13.760 --> 0:10:17.720 in Britain since Britain, as we said earlier, was buying 0:10:17.800 --> 0:10:22.080 most of Iceland's cod and I mean British British cod 0:10:22.240 --> 0:10:25.440 catches were not nearly enough to keep the nations supplied 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.760 in fish and chips. This basically was an economic santion 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:33.360 sanction against Iceland, but Iceland did not back down. And 0:10:33.400 --> 0:10:36.360 this was only the first of several times that Iceland 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:39.040 would move its fishing boundary. And we're going to talk 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.320 about where things stopped being so sort of cordial and 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:45.520 respectful and started to really get ugly. After we have 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:52.679 a brief sponsor break. 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Don't wait, 0:11:41.679 --> 0:11:44.360 go to stamps dot com and before you do anything else, 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:46.400 click on the microphone at the top of the homepage 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.839 and type in stuff that is stamps dot com and 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:53.680 enter stuff, and now you will get back to our story. 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:03.000 In nineteen fifty eight, the international community participated in the 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:06.760 first international Conference on the Law of the Sea. The 0:12:06.880 --> 0:12:10.880 u n's International Law Commission had been discussing and evaluating 0:12:11.000 --> 0:12:15.000 maritime international law for nearly a decade, but this was 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:19.560 the first conference that was specifically devoted to international maritime law. 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:25.680 Eighties six states participated in this conference. Fishing, we should 0:12:25.679 --> 0:12:28.400 point out, was certainly not the only thing being discussed 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:32.920 at the conference. Resolutions were adopted regarding nuclear tests, radioactive 0:12:32.920 --> 0:12:37.680 pollution of the oceans, and conservation, and various smaller nations 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:41.080 suggested a major expansion of the commonly used three mile 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:45.920 limit between international and territorial waters. The new proposed limit 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:50.520 a twelve mile economic exclusion zone around a nation's coast. 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.160 Most larger nations resisted this idea for reasons ranging from 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:59.319 economic unfairness to concerns that their navies could not effectively 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:04.720 maneuver or patrol with that much of the sea off limits. However, 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:08.800 when Iceland then expanded its exclusionary zone to twelve miles, 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.719 part of its argument was that that twelve miles was 0:13:12.760 --> 0:13:16.760 eventually going to be international law anyway, and while that 0:13:16.880 --> 0:13:19.760 previous move from three miles to four miles had been 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:22.840 met with flags at half masted in Britain's port towns, 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:27.720 the jump to twelve miles was genuinely alarming. The zone 0:13:27.840 --> 0:13:31.439 between four and twelve miles from Iceland's coast was prime 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:36.000 fishing territory for Britain's distant water fishing fleet. Shutting Britain 0:13:36.040 --> 0:13:39.000 out of twelve miles around Iceland had the potential to 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:44.920 completely disrupt the fishing industry. Aside from really genuine concerns 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:49.000 about the British economy, especially in these sports cities, Britain 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:53.520 was also really frustrated on principle. I understand this. I'm 0:13:53.559 --> 0:13:57.719 a person who gets colossally frustrated on principle, as had 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:01.199 been the case with that four mile on the twelve 0:14:01.280 --> 0:14:04.040 mile line was cutting Brittain out of waters that it 0:14:04.080 --> 0:14:08.320 had historically had access to and felt entitled to. And 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:10.360 then there was an emotional way to all of it, 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.000 and the cities that were home to Britain's distant water 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.120 fishing fleets. Fishing was really at the heart of the 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:20.440 community and of people's identities, so pushing out distant water 0:14:20.560 --> 0:14:23.280 fishing felt like it was stripping people of their way 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:25.640 of life and of something that they felt like was 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:30.320 a core part of who they were. Also, there's the 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:34.280 whole fish and chip thing again, which is also part 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:38.760 of like the identity issue. Yes, Like in the United States, 0:14:39.680 --> 0:14:42.280 fish and chips and a lot of places they're just 0:14:42.320 --> 0:14:46.960 like they're just sort of standard pub food, right, But 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:50.600 in the fifties and sixties and Britain, fish and chips 0:14:50.640 --> 0:14:55.720 was really a working class staple and like chippies were 0:14:55.720 --> 0:14:58.640 places that that sold fish and chips, and like there's 0:14:58.640 --> 0:15:03.920 a whole cultural layer to the existence in the consumption 0:15:04.000 --> 0:15:07.800 of of fish and chips that um does not have 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:11.480 the quite the same weight. And most of the United States, 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:15.240 yeah uh. And the UK was not the only nation 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:20.600 affected by this expansion in Iceland's territorial waters. Belgium, West 0:15:20.640 --> 0:15:23.600 Germany and the Faroe Islands were among the other nations 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.760 fishing in that same area, But it was the British 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:29.200 fishing fleet that was making the most use of it 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:32.440 among the international community, and it was Britain that became 0:15:32.440 --> 0:15:35.880 the most vocal in wanting continued access to that four 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:40.440 to twelve mile zone. Those cat and mouse shenanigans that 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.080 had happened at the four mile line kicked up several 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:48.080 notches in the four to twelve mile zone around Iceland. 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:52.320 As one might expect, Iceland deployed its Coast Guard to 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:56.120 try to enforce the policy, and it allowed officials to 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:59.560 board British ships and arrest their crews for fishing in 0:15:59.640 --> 0:16:03.360 water where they were not supposed to be. In response, 0:16:03.720 --> 0:16:07.840 Britain deployed ships from the Royal Navy to protect the trawlers, 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.440 essentially mandating that the trawlers fishing areas where the Royal 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:15.080 Navy was patrolling, and the trawlers used nets to try 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:18.280 to keep Icelandic inspectors from boarding, as well as spring 0:16:18.440 --> 0:16:22.240 boarding parties with hoses and trying to use spears to 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:25.520 puncture the rubber digghis the coast Guard used for boarding. 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.600 When a trawler was boarded, they'd often call in the 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:32.880 Royal Navy to assist, and on at least one occasion, 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:36.160 the Royal Navy then refused to let the Icelandic Coast 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:40.440 Guard officials go back to their own vessel, instead kept 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:44.720 them on board as guests. In quotation marks of the Crown. 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.160 One boarding party was eventually put into a little boat 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:50.720 off the coast of Keflavik and allowed to row back 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:55.440 to shore there. And that's really irritated the people that were, uh, 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:58.760 we're working at the NATO base in Keflavik, because they 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:00.680 were like, what do you mean there is a British 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:03.880 warship right there that just dropped you off in the water. 0:17:05.760 --> 0:17:09.560 Because Iceland had about six gunboats compared to the thirty 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:13.560 seven Royal Navy ships that Britain had deployed, Iceland didn't 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:18.080 really feel comfortable making a direct assault on the British force. Instead, 0:17:18.240 --> 0:17:21.800 Iceland kept thorough records of the names and numbers of 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:24.520 all of the British ships that broke the twelve mile limit. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.320 I kind of love fighting it with bureaucracy and I 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:33.840 don't even understand why. Yeah, it Yeah. This distribute wound 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:36.920 up being settled with a compromise in nineteen sixty one. 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:41.240 Britain ultimately agreed to respect the twelve mile limit and 0:17:41.320 --> 0:17:44.439 exchanged for a three year period to phase out the 0:17:44.480 --> 0:17:47.840 distant water fishing in the twelve mile zone. Once this 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:51.440 agreement was reached, Iceland destroyed all those records of who 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:54.160 all had been illegally fishing in the twelve mile zone, 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:58.640 which I also am kind of charmed by. Yes, it's 0:17:58.680 --> 0:18:01.119 like this is going on your perman record. Okay, now 0:18:01.160 --> 0:18:05.800 we're cool. We could get rid of that permanent record. Uh. 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.000 In the agreement, Iceland also acknowledged that it would continue 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:12.520 to consider extending the border even further, but would give 0:18:12.560 --> 0:18:16.239 Britain advanced notice if this were to happen. Quote, the 0:18:16.280 --> 0:18:19.720 Icelandic Government will continue to work for the implementation of 0:18:19.760 --> 0:18:23.119 the al Thing Resolution of five May nineteen fifty nine 0:18:23.560 --> 0:18:28.000 regarding the extension of fisheries jurisdiction around Iceland, but shall 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:31.320 give to the United Kingdom Government six months notice of 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:35.040 such extension, and in case of a dispute in relation 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:38.159 to such extension, the matter shall, at the request of 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:43.440 either party, be referred to the International Court of Justice. Yes, 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:47.040 that was basically referring to a resolution that had been 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:49.880 put out a couple of years before about possibly having 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:53.360 an even bigger exclusion zone. And then on July fourteenth 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:56.679 of nineteen seventy one, the government of Iceland released a 0:18:56.720 --> 0:19:00.280 new policy statement which said, quote the fisheries agreement with 0:19:00.359 --> 0:19:03.199 the United Kingdom and the Federal German Republic I'll be 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.800 terminated and a resolution be made about an extension of 0:19:06.920 --> 0:19:11.480 fishery limit up to fifty nautical miles from the baselines, 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:15.560 effective not later than one September nineteen seventy two. So 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:18.199 at this point we've gone from three miles to four miles, 0:19:18.240 --> 0:19:22.240 to twelve miles to fifty miles. Yeah, it's a big jump. 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.080 I can imagine if you are part of the fishing industry, 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.320 the knee jerk reaction could be irate at that point. Uh, 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:32.720 And that would explain why this is where things got 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.280 really really heated between the UK and Iceland. The United 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:39.240 Kingdom once again took its dispute to the International Court 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:42.240 of Justice in the Hague, which found in Britain's favor, 0:19:42.760 --> 0:19:46.040 but Iceland argued that the court did not have jurisdiction. 0:19:47.280 --> 0:19:51.120 Iceland was at this point incredibly frustrated and alarmed over 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:55.120 the condition of its fishing stocks. Stocks of the Icelandic 0:19:55.200 --> 0:19:59.560 herring had dropped precipitously almost to nothing, and Iceland was 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:02.720 concerned learned that cod were headed for this same fate. 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:07.399 They had made repeated calls for international discussions on conservation 0:20:07.480 --> 0:20:10.679 of fish stocks and sustainable fishing practices. And none of 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:13.720 that had gotten enough attention for Iceland to really feel 0:20:13.760 --> 0:20:18.280 secure in the future of a nation that was basically 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.240 dependent on fishing like at this point and even still 0:20:21.280 --> 0:20:23.560 today in a lot of ways, if the if the 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.160 fishing industry in Iceland is gone, Iceland as a nation 0:20:27.200 --> 0:20:30.879 cannot survive. And so even though there were some nations 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:35.119 that were willing to talk about more conservation oriented fishing 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.879 practices at this point in the seventies, Iceland was like, no, really, 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:41.800 we will die as a nation if we don't look 0:20:41.840 --> 0:20:45.320 after these fish. And to make matters worse from the 0:20:45.359 --> 0:20:48.560 British point of view, also in nineteen seventy two, the 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.000 United Kingdom joined the Common Market, and this was basically 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:55.160 an approach by the European Economic Community that gave all 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.240 its members equal access to the territorial waters of all 0:20:58.280 --> 0:21:02.760 the other members after a grace period. Iceland, not being 0:21:02.800 --> 0:21:06.000 a member of the European Economic Community, was not affected, 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.600 but the UK was concerned about what it would mean 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:10.800 for its own fishing industry to give the rest of 0:21:10.800 --> 0:21:15.479 the European Economic Community access to its fishing grounds. The 0:21:15.600 --> 0:21:19.000 UK to the UK fishing fleet those waters off the 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:24.200 coast of Iceland became even more important, so the UK 0:21:24.400 --> 0:21:27.800 once again deployed the Royal Navy to protect its distant 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.560 water trawlers. And during the previous dispute, the trawlers were 0:21:31.560 --> 0:21:34.119 basically supposed to stick with the navy, and now they 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:36.199 were trying to do it the other way around. The 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.159 trawlers would go whether where they needed to fish, and 0:21:39.200 --> 0:21:43.080 the Navy would follow them to protect them. In other words, 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:47.240 the UK had decided not to respect that fifty mile line. 0:21:47.760 --> 0:21:49.560 And we're going to talk about the fallout from that 0:21:50.000 --> 0:21:52.359 a little bit more after we once again paused for 0:21:52.359 --> 0:21:59.000 a word from a sponsor. 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