Cod Wars

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Icelandic Coast Guard ships

The three cod wars ( English Cod Wars , Icelandic Þorskastríðin ) were conflicts over fishing rights that developed primarily between Iceland and the United Kingdom between 1958 and 1976. The Federal Republic of Germany was also involved in some of these disputes. Iceland widened its fishing limits from four to twelve, then to 50 and finally to 200  nautical milesfrom what was contrary to the interests of Great Britain and other states and led to diplomatic entanglements. Despite their name, the “wars” were not military conflicts and were largely bloodless. The only fatality died as a result of a ship collision. Iceland was able to assert its interests in all conflicts.

causes

Expansion of Iceland's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)
  • Iceland
  • Inland waters
  • 4 nm extension
  • 12 nm extension (current border of the territorial waters)
  • 50 nm extension
  • 200 nm extension (current limit of the EEZ)

    • Iceland derives a significant part of its export income from fishery products, in which the cod catch - which gives the conflict its name - plays an important role. It maintains a coast guard itself , but neither a navy nor any other armed forces ( see also: Iceland's military situation ). In 1952, after modernizing its foreign fishing fleets, Iceland canceled the old 3-nautical-mile agreement signed in 1901 between Denmark and the United Kingdom on Icelandic fishing grounds and established a four-nautical-mile protection zone. In protest , Great Britain boycotted the import of Icelandic fish. As a result, the Icelanders began to build high-performance freezer systems and opened up new sales markets, especially in the USA and the USSR .

    First Cod War

    Because of renewed overfishing , Iceland decided in 1958 to expand the zone to twelve nautical miles, whereupon Great Britain sent warships to protect the British fishing trawlers in the 12 nautical mile zone. All NATO members condemned the unilateral move by the Icelanders, while the British announced that they would have their trawlers protected by the navy. There were relatively harmless clashes between Icelandic coast guard boats and British trawlers. The conflict lasted from September 1 to November 12, 1958, with the Icelandic Coast Guard having great difficulty in controlling the large sea area around their island against superior British forces. The Icelanders therefore threatened to withdraw from NATO and expel the American soldiers. Even pro-Western cabinet members felt compelled to make these threats as they were Iceland's only way of applying pressure. After protests by Icelanders at the United Nations and before the NATO Council, Great Britain finally had to recognize the 12 nautical mile zone and withdraw.

    Second cod war

    The technique of cutting nets, first used by the Icelandic Coast Guard on September 7, 1972 by the Ægir

    After the collapse of the fish stocks in Icelandic territorial waters at the beginning of the 1970s and the income of fishermen had fallen sharply, Iceland extended the protection zone again to 50 nautical miles this time in 1972. The island state now claimed 30% of the bottom fish yield in the North Atlantic . Great Britain and Germany did not want to recognize this, which led to further disputes. The Icelanders destroyed the gear of foreign fishing boats that were within the claimed 50 nautical mile protection zone.

    On August 26, 1973, the cod wars became the only fatality. After a collision between the Icelandic Coast Guard's patrol boat gir and the British frigate Apollo, there was a leak in the Ægir's engine room . Second machinist Halldór Hallfreðsson was in the process of welding the leak when a wave hit the Ægir and water seeped in. This led to the death of Halldór Hallfreðsson from an electric shock from his welding machine .

    The dispute was finally settled with the intervention of the United States, fearing the possible loss of one of its bases, the air base in Keflavík . After receiving special fishing rights, Great Britain accepted the extension of the zone.

    Third Cod War

    The expansion of the protection zone did not have the hoped-for effect and could not solve the economic problems either. In 1974 the Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Hallgrímsson announced the extension to 200 nautical miles, which was carried out a year later. Great Britain then sent warships back to the Icelandic coastal region to protect the trawlers . The Icelanders cut the nets of foreign ships again (including German fishing ships). There were also a number of incidents where British and Icelandic ships rammed into each other. A well-documented incident occurred on January 7, 1976 when the Icelandic Coast Guard's patrol boat Thor collided with the British frigate HMS Andromeda 35 nautical miles off the Icelandic coast . The Royal Navy takes the position that the Thor tried to cut the fishing nets of the British trawler Portia , abruptly changing course and ramming the frigate. Iceland, on the other hand, insisted that the Andromeda rammed the Thor instead. On February 19, 1976 Iceland temporarily broke off diplomatic relations with Great Britain. The conflict was resolved by negotiation and on June 2, 1976 the British government accepted the 200 nautical mile zone in an interim agreement.

    End of the dispute

    The small and military-free Iceland was able to assert its interests in all three conflicts against the far more powerful United Kingdom. The 200-nautical-mile zone of Iceland was recognized by all states of the European Economic Community (EEC) on January 1, 1977 . According to Article 57 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , signed on December 10, 1982, fishing limits can now generally be extended to up to 200 nautical miles. The yields of Icelanders have increased from year to year. International agreements on catch quotas aim to end the decline in fish stocks.

    See also

    literature

    • Ingo Heidbrink : “Germany's only colony is the sea!” German deep-sea fishing and the fishing conflicts of the 20th century (= writings of the German Maritime Museum. Volume 63). Convent, Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-934613-80-2 (also: Bremen, University, habilitation paper, 2004).
    • Hannes Jónsson: Friends in Conflict: The Anglo-Icelandic Cod Wars and the Law of the Sea. Archon Books, Hamden (Conn.), ISBN 0-208-02000-4 and Hurst, London, ISBN 0-905838-78-5 , 1982.
    • Katrin Rupprecht: The German-Icelandic fishing zone dispute 1972–1976. Crisis for NATO? Based on the files of the Federal Foreign Office. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-62042-7 .
    • Jón Th. Thór: British trawlers and Iceland 1919–1976 , Fiskeri- og Søfartsmuseets Forlag, Esbjerg 1995 (Publications of the Institute of Economic History of Gothenburg University, Volume 69), ISBN 87-87453-82-7 .
    • Andrew Welch: The royal navy in the cod wars. Britain and Iceland in conflict 1958–61, 1972–73, 1975–76 , Maritime Books, Liskeard 2006, ISBN 978-1-904459-23-1 .

    Web links

    Individual evidence

    1. ↑ Guðmundur Hörður Guðmundsson: 15. Annað þorskastríðið. Tímabilið 19 May 1973 til November 1973. (pdf; 82 kB) In: lhg.is . August 29, 2005, p. 3 , accessed July 24, 2018 (Icelandic).
    2. ↑ Dauðsvall um borð í Ægi: Var það alda frá Statesman, sem grandaði manninum? In: Tíminn. 200, August 31, 1973, p. 1 , accessed February 19, 2021 (Icelandic, reproduced on Timarit.is ).
    3. ↑ World ocean review 1, 2010, p. 124.
    4. ^ Hannes Jónsson: Friends in Conflict. P. 173.