Friday, September 18, 2015

Ice Iceland!

If you don't like what the mayor of Reykjavík decided, write to him at

And perhaps remind him of this territorial expansion behavior:

The Cod Wars (Icelandic: Þorskastríðin, "the cod war", or Landhelgisstríðin, "the war for the territorial waters") were a series of confrontations between the United Kingdom and Iceland regarding fishing rights in the North Atlantic. Each of the disputes ended with Iceland's victory. The final Cod War concluded with a highly favorable agreement for Iceland, as the United Kingdom conceded to a 200 nautical-mile Icelandic exclusive fishery zone...

...The First Cod War lasted from 1 September until February/March 1961. It began as soon as a new Icelandic law that expanded the Icelandic fishery zone, from 4 to 12 nautical miles (7.4 to 22.2 km), came into force at midnight on 1 September. The term "cod war" was coined by a British journalist in early September 1958. None of the Cod Wars meet any of the common thresholds for war though, and may more accurately be described as militarized interstate disputes.

The British declared that their trawlers would fish under protection from their warships in three areas: out of the Westfjords, north of Horn and to the southeast of Iceland. All in all, 20 British trawlers, 4 warships and a supply vessel were inside the newly declared zones. This deployment was expensive;...

Many incidents followed, such as the one on 4 September, when the ICGV Ægir, an Icelandic patrol vessel, attempted to take a British trawler off the Westfjords, but was thwarted when HMS Russell intervened, and the two vessels collided.

On 6 October, V/s María Júlía fired three shots at the trawler Kingston Emerald, forcing the trawler to escape to sea.

On 12 November, V/s Þór encountered the trawler Hackness which had not stowed its nets legally. Hackness did not stop until Þór had fired two blanks and one live shell off its bow. Once again, HMS Russell came to the rescue and its shipmaster ordered the Icelandic captain to leave the trawler alone as it was not within the 4 nmi (7.4 km) limit recognised by the British government. Þór's captain, Eiríkur Kristófersson, said that he would not do so, and ordered his men to approach the trawler with the gun manned. In response, the Russell threatened to sink the Icelandic boat if it so much as fired one shot at the Hackness. More British ships then arrived and the Hackness retreated.


Perhaps inform the Ministry of Fisheries (postur@anr.is) that you don't like their cod fish 


anymore.

^

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This was something of a blunder by the icelandic majore, he forgot to specify that the boycot was only meant for export from the occupied/settled territories, not Israel as a whole. Same type of boycot most nordic capitals have imposed.
B.t.w. it was not the icelandic coast guard that defeated the british but rather the foreign minister who turned to the u.s. and threatened to leave nato if u.s.a. did not put preassure on the british to "give up." I.e. sacrifice the fishing industries of Hull and it´s neighbours over another type of foreign policy.