0:02

Happy Saturday, everybody. I am Tracy

0:04

V. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. An

0:06

interesting headline caught my eye this week.

0:09

It was that the Icelandic Coastguard

0:11

vessel a Year is being sold

0:13

after fifty years of service. It's

0:16

being sold because it has fallen into disuse

0:18

over the last couple of years. And this headline

0:21

caught my eye not just because

0:23

I've been really, really nostalgic

0:25

for a trip I took to Iceland a few years back,

0:27

but also because this vessel played a major

0:30

part in the Cod Wars, which

0:32

took place between Iceland and the UK. Our

0:35

previous episode on the Cod Wars came out

0:37

on October and this news

0:39

gave us a good excuse to put it right back into

0:41

everybody's feeds. So enjoy.

0:47

Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class.

0:49

A production of I Heart Radio Hello

0:58

and Welcome to the Pod asked I'm

1:00

Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Frying.

1:04

When I was in Iceland back in the

1:06

spring, I learned a very tiny bit about

1:08

the Cod Wars. Uh.

1:10

Long time listeners to the show will probably

1:13

notice some similarities between the thing

1:15

that we're going to talk about today and the Chesapeake

1:17

Bay Oyster Wars, which we talked about back

1:19

in But while the Chesapeake

1:22

Bay conflict was mostly confined

1:24

to the states of Virginia and Maryland, the

1:27

Cod Wars were an international

1:30

dispute that wound up having a lot

1:32

more long lasting ramifications

1:34

in both the United Kingdom and in Iceland.

1:37

So after I got home from the Strip where I learned

1:39

that the Cod Wars had happened, I

1:41

put them on the potential episode list,

1:44

and then all of a sudden, over the last

1:46

week or so, multiple other people, sort

1:49

of apropos of nothing, said hey, would

1:51

you talk about the Cod Wars um

1:54

and that included most recently Gemma and

1:56

Steve. So I thought, okay, I guess

1:58

I'll put cod Wars at the top of the list. Have

2:00

been kind of languishing there, and now we're

2:02

gonna do it. I do want to be

2:04

clear that this is definitely not

2:06

the only fishing dispute that has ever happened

2:09

in these particular waters, but

2:12

it's definitely one of the most famous.

2:14

Uh and in some ways it's the weirdest and

2:16

the most comical, even though it was not actually

2:19

funny to the people it

2:21

was happening to like it

2:23

sounds funny, but a lot

2:26

of people's livelihoods were deeply

2:28

at stake in the middle of this

2:30

thing. That sounds sort of comedic.

2:33

So to give you the setup, Iceland

2:36

and the United Kingdom are two relatively

2:39

small island nations. The UK

2:41

is a little more than nine thousand square

2:43

miles and Iceland is a little less

2:45

than forty thousand square miles. That's about

2:47

two hundred forty three thousand square kilometers

2:50

and one hundred three thousand square kilometers

2:53

respectively. The UK, however,

2:55

has much more habitable land than

2:58

Iceland does. The middle of ice Land

3:00

is mountainous, and it's covered in glaciers

3:02

and also in many places volcanic, so

3:05

nearly all of its population lives

3:07

relatively close to the coast. It

3:10

is completely unsurprising that

3:13

two relatively small island nations,

3:15

one of which is only really habitable

3:17

along the coastline, have historically

3:20

relied on fishing, both as an industry

3:22

and for the nation's cuisine. As

3:25

we discussed in our podcast about

3:27

the volcanic eruption on the island of Hamming,

3:30

fishing is critically important

3:32

to Iceland's economy

3:34

today. The fishing industry and Iceland

3:36

employees about eleven thousand people,

3:39

which is a little more than four percent of Iceland's

3:41

total workforce, and the fishing

3:43

industry directly contributes to

3:46

about eleven percent of Iceland

3:48

of the icelandic GDP and

3:50

indirectly a full

3:52

quarter of Iceland's GDP. About

3:56

fort of Iceland's export

3:58

earnings come from fish today, with cod

4:00

being a primary export, and before

4:02

the nineteen seventies almost

4:06

of Iceland's exports were fish.

4:09

Meanwhile, Britain's fishing industry

4:11

employs a little under twelve thousand

4:13

fishers today, so about the same size

4:15

as Iceland's industry, but because

4:17

the UK's population and economy are

4:20

so much larger, it's really a much smaller

4:22

proportion of the UK economy as

4:24

a whole. The UK has a

4:26

population of sixty four million compared

4:28

to three hundred and twenty three thousand in

4:31

Iceland. Marine fishing

4:33

is about zero point oh

4:35

five percent of the British GDP, and

4:38

all forms of fishing together make

4:40

up about zero point zero seven

4:42

percent of the British GDP. Prior

4:46

to the nineteen fifties, though fishing

4:49

was a much bigger part of the British

4:51

economy, especially in fishing ports

4:53

cities like Hull, Gramsby and Fleetwood.

4:57

In these ports, fishing trawlers

4:59

were the prime arey employer and

5:01

most of the fishing fleet that sailed from

5:03

these ports did what's known as distant water

5:05

fishing, so boats would leave these

5:08

ports in Britain and they would travel hundreds

5:10

of miles to fish in the waters

5:12

around Iceland. In

5:15

addition to catching a lot of cod, Britain

5:18

eight and continues to eat, for that

5:20

matter, a lot of cod. In

5:22

the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties,

5:24

four d and thirty thousand tons of

5:27

cod were being eaten in Britain annually,

5:29

overwhelmingly in the form of fish and chips.

5:32

Britain continues to eat more cod than

5:34

anywhere else in the world, a third

5:37

of the cod in the world, and of

5:39

the cod caught in European waters. So

5:43

yeah, the Iceland and Britain

5:45

were united by the fact that there's lots

5:48

of cod around Iceland and

5:50

Brittain was eating almost

5:53

all of it, almost

5:55

all the cod because fish

5:57

and chips, I mean, it's it's delicious

6:00

and also kind of astounding just how

6:02

much was being eaten. Another

6:05

important piece of background information,

6:07

and all of this story has to do with the idea

6:09

of international waters and how nations

6:11

get to decide which parts of the ocean are

6:14

There's the idea that

6:16

a nation with the coastline has rights

6:18

to a certain amount of the ocean around it. Has

6:20

existed for centuries, and a

6:23

nation's territorial waters

6:25

extend a certain distance past

6:27

its coast and then beyond that our international

6:29

waters. Starting in the seventeen

6:32

hundreds in Europe and the America's,

6:34

a nation's territorial waters

6:36

typically extended about three

6:39

miles past the coastline, although

6:41

there were definitely exceptions, with nations

6:43

claiming more or less. Prior

6:48

to its independence in nineteen four,

6:51

Iceland was a part of Denmark, and

6:53

according to the Anglo Danish Territorial Waters

6:55

Agreement, it, like so many other

6:57

nations, followed that three mile limit.

7:00

That agreement was set to expire in nineteen

7:02

fifty one, But when Iceland became

7:04

independent from Denmark, it got to

7:06

work setting its own terms for where

7:09

other nations could fish immediately.

7:12

Iceland had two primary motivations

7:15

for reevaluating its fishing

7:17

boundaries. One was that fishing

7:19

was so enormously critical to its

7:21

own economy that it wanted to make sure

7:23

its own fishing fleet had the greatest advantage.

7:26

Iceland sort of viewed this situation

7:29

as a zero sum game. Other

7:31

nations that were taking fish out of the waters

7:33

around Iceland were taking them from Iceland

7:36

because Iceland had so few other

7:38

industries or national or natural resources

7:41

to add to its economy.

7:43

The other was that Iceland was becoming

7:45

increasingly concerned about the health of

7:47

the fish stocks around it and the threat of

7:50

overfishing, so banning other

7:52

nations from fishing closer to its

7:54

shores was a way to try to keep Icelandic

7:57

fishers fishing while

7:59

ideal lowering the

8:01

risk of depleting those fish populations.

8:04

As a result, on May fifteenth,

8:07

nineteen fifty two, Iceland

8:09

extended the line from three miles

8:11

to four And this wasn't the first

8:13

push of its territorial water since becoming

8:16

independent, but it was the first

8:18

extension that affected a part of the sea

8:20

that Britain had been using for its

8:22

fishing. Yes, some of the prior

8:25

extension was more to the north, which

8:27

was not as much of a British fishing ground. Britain

8:30

was not happy about this change.

8:33

There was more shelter available in bad

8:35

weather three miles out compared to four miles

8:37

out. And then, of course there was just the

8:39

principle of the thing. Britain's who had

8:41

been making their livelihoods through fishing

8:44

for generations and who lived in port

8:46

cities where fishing was the biggest industry

8:48

were basically being shut out of a strip

8:51

of the sea that they'd historically had access

8:53

to. When Iceland

8:55

said its new line at four miles, flags

8:57

flew at half mast in British distant

9:00

water fishing ports. The Grimsby

9:02

Evening Telegraph called it black

9:04

Thursday. In spite

9:06

of this new law, the four mile zone

9:09

around Iceland did not make that

9:11

big of a difference to British distant

9:13

distant water fishing boats. A lot

9:16

of them had already been crossing

9:18

the three mile line when fish were scarce

9:20

beyond it. A number of captains

9:22

and owners also thought that the fine

9:25

that came with crossing that four mile

9:27

line was worth the risk if it meant

9:29

better fishing on the other side of the line.

9:32

All in all, even though there was a bit of cat

9:34

and mouse darting around the line, British

9:37

captains and crews surrendered when

9:39

they realized they were caught in ICELANDIC

9:42

Coastguard personnel were always honest and

9:44

faring court cases over illegal fishing.

9:47

Aside from some tomfoolery, people

9:49

on both sides of this dispute were generally

9:51

respectful and professional about it. Yeah,

9:54

and in spite of all the like the flying

9:56

the flags that half mast and the

9:59

s ring back and forth across the line

10:01

where people weren't really supposed to be like, you

10:03

know, when the coast Guard showed up and was like, you're

10:05

not supposed to be here, they would have been like, yeah,

10:08

you're you gottess. The

10:13

UK also took the very reasonable

10:15

course of action of taking their dispute

10:18

with Iceland before the International

10:20

Court of Justice. When Iceland's

10:22

four mile limit was upheld, Britain

10:24

responded by banning Icelandic

10:27

fishing vessels from landing their fish in

10:29

Britain. Since Britain, as

10:31

we said earlier, was buying most of

10:33

Iceland's cod, and I mean British

10:36

British cod catches were not nearly

10:39

enough to keep the nation supplied in fish

10:41

and chips. This basically was an economic

10:43

sanction sanction against Iceland, but Iceland

10:46

did not back down and

10:48

this was only the first of several times

10:50

that Iceland would move its fishing boundary,

10:53

and we're going to talk about where things stopped

10:56

being so sort of cordial and respectful

10:58

and started to really get ugly. After

11:00

we have a brief sponsor break.

11:15

In ninety eight, the international

11:17

community participated in the first International

11:20

Conference on the Law of the Sea. The

11:22

u n's International Law Commission had

11:25

been discussing and evaluating maritime

11:27

international law for nearly a decade,

11:30

but this was the first conference that was specifically

11:33

devoted to international maritime

11:35

law. Eighties six states

11:37

participated in this conference.

11:40

Fishing, we should point out, was certainly

11:42

not the only thing being discussed at the conference.

11:45

Resolutions were adopted regarding nuclear

11:47

tests, radioactive pollution of the oceans,

11:50

and conservation, and various

11:52

smaller nations suggested a major

11:54

expansion of the commonly used three

11:56

mile limit between international and territorial

11:59

waters. The new proposed

12:01

limit a twelve mile economic

12:04

exclusion zone around a nation's coast.

12:07

Most larger nations resisted this idea

12:09

for reasons ranging from economic unfairness

12:12

to concerns that their navies could

12:14

not effectively maneuver or patrol

12:16

with that much of the sea off limits.

12:20

However, when Iceland then expanded

12:22

its exclusionary zone to twelve miles, and

12:26

part of its argument was that that twelve

12:28

miles was eventually going to be international

12:30

law anyway. And

12:32

while that previous move from three miles

12:34

to four miles had been met with flags

12:36

at half masted in Britain's port towns,

12:39

the jump to twelve miles was genuinely

12:42

alarming. The zone between

12:44

four and twelve miles from Iceland's coast

12:46

was prime fishing territory for Britain's

12:49

distant water fishing fleet. Shutting

12:51

Britain out of twelve miles around Iceland

12:54

had the potential to completely disrupt

12:56

the fishing industry. Aside

12:59

from really genuine win concerns about

13:01

the British economy, especially in these

13:03

sports cities, Britain was also

13:05

really frustrated on principle. I

13:08

understand this. I'm a person who gets

13:10

colossally frustrated on principle, as

13:13

had been the case with that four

13:15

mile line. The twelve mile line

13:18

was cutting Brittain out of waters that it had

13:20

historically had access to and

13:22

felt entitled to. And then

13:24

there was an emotional way to all of it, and

13:26

the cities that were home to Britain's distant

13:28

water fishing fleets. Fishing was

13:31

really at the heart of the community and of

13:33

people's identities. So pushing

13:35

out distant water fishing felt like

13:37

it was stripping people of their way of life

13:39

and of something that they felt like was a core

13:42

part of who they were.

13:44

Also, there's the whole fish

13:46

and chip thing again, which

13:49

is also part of like the identity

13:51

issue. Yes, Like in the

13:53

United States, fish

13:56

and chips and a lot of places they're

13:58

just like they're just sort of stand pub

14:00

food, right, But

14:03

in the fifties and sixties and Britain,

14:05

fish and chips was really a working

14:08

class staple, and

14:10

like chippies were places that

14:12

that sold fish and chips, and like there's

14:14

a whole cultural layer

14:18

to the existence in the consumption of

14:20

of fish and chips that um

14:23

does not have the quite the same weight. And

14:26

most of the United States, yeah

14:29

uh, And the UK was not the only nation affected

14:32

by this expansion in Iceland's territorial

14:34

waters. Belgium, West

14:36

Germany and the Faroe Islands were among

14:38

the other nations fishing in that same

14:40

area, But it was the British fishing

14:43

fleet that was making the most use of it

14:45

among the international community, and

14:47

it was Britain that became the most vocal

14:49

in wanting continued access to

14:51

that four to twelve mile zone. Those

14:54

cat and mouse shenanigans that had happened

14:57

at the four mile line kicked

14:59

up several role notches in the four

15:01

to twelve mile zone around Iceland.

15:04

As one might expect, Iceland

15:06

deployed its Coastguard to try to enforce

15:09

the policy, and it allowed

15:11

officials to board British ships

15:13

and arrest their crews for fishing in

15:15

waters where they were not supposed to be.

15:18

In response, Britain deployed

15:20

ships from the Royal Navy to protect

15:22

the trawlers, essentially mandating

15:25

that the trawlers fishing areas where the

15:27

Royal Navy was patrolling, and

15:29

the trawlers used nets to try to keep

15:31

Icelandic inspectors from boarding, as

15:33

well as springing boarding parties with

15:35

hoses and trying to use spears

15:38

to puncture the rubber dighis the Coastguard

15:40

used for boarding. When

15:42

a trawler was boarded, they'd often

15:45

call in the Royal Navy to assist, and

15:47

on at least one occasion, the Royal

15:49

Navy then refused to let the Icelandic

15:51

Coast Guard officials go back to their own vessel,

15:55

instead kept them on board

15:57

as guests in quotation

15:59

marks of the Crown. One

16:01

boarding party was eventually put into a little

16:03

boat off the coast of keef Levik and allowed

16:06

to row back to shore there. And that's

16:08

really irritated the people that

16:10

were, uh, we're working at the

16:12

NATO base in kef Levik, because

16:14

they were like, what do you mean there is a British

16:16

warship right there that just dropped

16:19

you off in the water. Because

16:22

Iceland had about six gun

16:24

boats compared to the thirty seven Royal

16:26

Navy ships that Britain had deployed, Iceland

16:29

didn't really feel comfortable making a direct

16:31

assault on the British force. Instead,

16:34

Iceland kept thorough records

16:36

of the names and numbers of all of the British

16:38

ships that broke the twelve mile limit. I

16:41

kind of love fighting it with bureaucracy and

16:43

I don't even understand why.

16:46

Yeah, yeah,

16:48

this distribute wound up being settled with a

16:50

compromise in nineteen sixty one.

16:53

Britain ultimately agreed to respect

16:56

the twelve mile limit and exchange for

16:58

a three year period to phase out

17:00

the distant water fishing in the twelve

17:02

mile zone. Once this agreement was

17:04

reached, Iceland destroyed all those

17:06

records of who all had been illegally fishing

17:09

in the twelve mile zone, which I also am

17:11

kind of charmed by.

17:13

Yes, it's like this is going on your permanent

17:16

record. Okay, now we're cool. We could get rid of

17:18

that permanent record. Uh.

17:21

In the agreement, Iceland also acknowledged

17:24

that it would continue to consider extending

17:26

the border even further, but would

17:28

give Britain advanced notice if this were

17:30

to happen. Quote, the Icelandic

17:32

Government will continue to work for the implementation

17:35

of the al Thing Resolution of five May

17:38

nineteen fifty nine regarding

17:40

the extension of fisheries jurisdiction

17:42

around Iceland, but shall give

17:44

to the United Kingdom Government six

17:46

months notice of such extension, and

17:49

in case of a dispute in relation to such

17:51

extension, the matter shall, at

17:53

the request of either party, be referred

17:56

to the International Court of Justice. Yes,

17:59

those based referring to a

18:01

resolution that had been put out a couple of years

18:04

before about possibly having an

18:06

even bigger exclusion zone. And then

18:08

on July fourteenth of nineteen seventy

18:10

one, the government of Iceland released

18:12

a new policy statement which said, quote

18:14

the fisheries agreements with the United

18:16

Kingdom and the Federal German Republic I'll

18:19

be terminated and a resolution

18:21

be made about an extension of fishery limit

18:24

up to fifty nautical miles

18:26

from the baselines, effective not later

18:28

than one September ninety

18:30

two. So at this point we've gone from three

18:33

miles to four miles, to twelve miles

18:35

to fifty miles. Yeah,

18:37

it's a big jump. I can imagine if

18:39

you are part of the fishing industry, the

18:42

knee jerk reaction could be irate at

18:44

that point. Uh, And that would

18:47

explain why this is where things got really really

18:49

heated between the UK and Iceland. The

18:52

United Kingdom once again took its dispute

18:54

to the International Court of Justice in the Hague,

18:56

which found in Britain's favor, but

18:58

Iceland argued that the court did not have

19:01

jurisdiction. Iceland

19:04

was at this point incredibly frustrated

19:06

and alarmed over the condition of its

19:08

fishing stocks. Stocks of the

19:10

icelandic herring had dropped precipitously

19:13

almost to nothing, and Iceland

19:15

was concerned that cod were headed for

19:17

this same fate. They had made

19:19

repeated calls for international

19:21

discussions on conservation of fish

19:23

stocks and sustainable fishing practices,

19:26

and none of that had gotten enough attention

19:28

for Iceland to really feel secure in

19:30

the future of of a

19:32

nation that was basically dependent

19:34

on fishing. Like at this point and even

19:37

still today in a lot of ways, if the

19:39

if the fishing industry in Iceland is

19:41

gone, Iceland as a nation cannot

19:43

survive. And so even

19:45

though there were some nations that were willing to talk

19:47

about more conservation

19:50

oriented fishing practices at

19:52

this point in the seventies, Iceland was like, no, really,

19:55

we will die as a nation if we don't look after

19:58

these fish. And to make

20:00

matters worse from the British point of view,

20:02

also in ninety two, the

20:04

United Kingdom joined the Common Market,

20:07

and this was basically an approach by the European

20:09

Economic Community that gave all its members

20:11

equal access to the territorial waters

20:13

of all the other members after a grace

20:16

period. Iceland, not

20:18

being a member of the European Economic Community,

20:21

was not affected, but the UK was

20:23

concerned about what it would mean for its own fishing

20:25

industry to give the rest of the European economic

20:27

community access to its fishing

20:30

grounds the UK, to the

20:32

UK fishing fleet, those waters

20:34

off the coast of Iceland became even

20:36

more important. So

20:39

the UK once again deployed the Royal

20:42

Navy to protect its distant water trawlers.

20:45

And during the previous dispute, the trawlers

20:47

were basically supposed to stick with the navy,

20:49

and now they were trying to do it the other way around.

20:52

The trawlers would go whether where they needed

20:54

to fish, and the Navy would follow them

20:56

to protect them. In

20:58

other words, the UK had

21:00

decided not to respect that fifty

21:02

mile line, and we're going to talk about

21:04

the fallout from that a little bit more

21:06

after we once again paused for a word from

21:08

a sponsor. The

21:24

first day that British ships made their

21:26

way across the newly established

21:28

fifty mile line around Iceland, they

21:31

covered up their names and numbers on their ships

21:33

and hoisted pirate flags. Iceland's

21:37

coast Guard was mostly amused

21:39

at this course of action, because at this

21:41

point they had been patrolling these waters with

21:43

these British trawlers for years, and

21:46

they were sort of like, do you think we really can't recognize

21:48

your ship? Without the name on it, like, we know

21:50

what your ship looks like, we know who you are.

21:53

It's the clark can't Glasses disguise of

21:55

the sea. It was absolutely

21:58

the Clark can't glasses to sect the guys

22:00

of the sea. And

22:03

this time around things really did start

22:05

though, as much as we're laughing now, they

22:07

became very serious and physical between

22:10

Iceland and the UK. Towards

22:12

the end of the previous dispute, Iceland had

22:14

developed a trawling net cutter, and

22:16

this was essentially a minesweeper

22:18

modified with a road grading blade

22:21

that was dragged through the water behind a boat

22:24

so when it hit the high tension trawling wires,

22:26

it would cut right through them.

22:29

This was the part I learned at a museum in Iceland

22:31

where I was like, oh, the Icelandic

22:34

Coast Guard was just cutting through trawling

22:36

nuts. That's fascinating. However,

22:40

the cruise of the British trawlers

22:42

were horrified and alarmed

22:44

at this invention. The wires

22:46

of these trawling nuts, I mean, these are enormous

22:49

nets that are under the water and they fill

22:51

up with fish. They are under a whole lot

22:53

of tension. So it was within

22:56

the realm of possibility that a

22:58

wire that had been cut could re bound

23:00

and literally cut someone in half. Iceland

23:04

insisted that this cutting was happening

23:06

far enough below the surface of the water

23:08

that this was not a risk, and there wasn't

23:10

a risk to human life because all of

23:13

this energy that was being dissipated

23:15

when the wire was cut basically was

23:17

was dissipated in the traveling

23:19

through the water. Um Even

23:21

so, even if if there

23:24

wasn't a risk, and I think you can argue that either

23:26

way, the loss of the trawling

23:28

net itself, and of the time

23:30

and energy that you had put into putting

23:33

it together and deploying it, and whatever

23:35

time you had spent fishing with it

23:37

basically meant that people were losing

23:40

a lot of work and equipment in

23:42

this process. The

23:45

Icelandic Coastguard was vastly

23:48

outnumbered. It had six Coastguard

23:50

vessels plus two Polish built trawlers

23:52

retrofitted for the purpose. Britain,

23:55

on the other hand, had a total of twenty nine

23:57

ships earmarked for the purpose, was

23:59

six to nine of them in Icelandic water

24:01

at any given time. In

24:03

addition to those frigates were seven supply

24:06

ships, nine tug boats and three

24:08

artillery ships to protect its forty

24:10

trawlers.

24:13

Soon, in spite of being so heavily

24:15

outnumbered, Icelandic vessels

24:18

started intentionally ramming

24:20

British Royal Navy ships and trawlers.

24:23

This actually there was one collision

24:25

that did lead to the death of an Icelandic

24:27

officer. Britain responded

24:29

by trying to update its trawler fleet

24:32

by radio about the positions of Iceland's

24:34

vessels, So the Icelandic Coastguards

24:37

started recording Britain's transmissions

24:39

on the positions of where the Icelandic vessels

24:42

were and then replaying them at

24:44

a later date to so confusion. When

24:46

Britain realized that that was happening, their

24:49

ships began to spread the word by radio

24:51

to disregard the prior message, so

24:53

the Icelandic Coast Guard recorded that

24:55

too to replay it later on. It's

24:59

a a ghost arms at that point

25:01

where they're doing like these false sounds. Escapes

25:05

May nine seventy three

25:08

and Icelandic ship shelled a British

25:10

trawler. Also in May,

25:12

Iceland banned British planes from landing

25:14

at Keflavik Air Base. That

25:17

October, the UK and Iceland

25:19

finally agreed to limit the number of British

25:21

ships in icelandic waters, limit

25:24

the size of the catch, and thankfully

25:27

stop ramming each other. So

25:30

this is kind of an uneasy piece that lasted

25:33

for a couple of years. But in nineteen

25:35

seventy five, Iceland extended

25:37

its maritime border again to two

25:40

hundred miles, so now we've gone

25:43

three four twelve fifty two

25:45

hundred. Once

25:47

again, Britain refused to to

25:50

respect yet another expansion

25:52

in the exclusionary zone around Iceland.

25:54

Negotiating negotiations really quickly

25:57

broke down. Iceland threatened

25:59

to close the NATO Basic Kevlovik

26:01

entirely and to end diplomatic

26:04

relations with Britain. The international

26:06

community became really alarmed. All

26:08

of these conflicts were running parallel

26:10

to the Cold War, and there were some concerns

26:13

that Iceland, which was strategically placed between

26:15

Russia and North America, might,

26:17

under all of this pressure and resistance from

26:19

Britain, just abandoned its other

26:21

diplomatic ties in favor of allying

26:24

with Russia. Eventually,

26:27

after numerous rammings and even

26:29

some shelling caused damage to ships

26:31

on both sides of the conflict, the

26:33

Secretary General of NATO doctor

26:35

Joseph Lunz had to mediate an

26:37

agreement between Iceland and the UK,

26:40

and that was signed in June of ninety

26:43

six. It upheld Iceland's

26:45

two hundred mile exclusion zone and it specified

26:48

that Britain could have a maximum of

26:50

twenty four trawlers in that zone at

26:52

any given time. Conservation

26:55

zones were established where no fishing would

26:57

be allowed. After six months,

26:59

there would be no more fishing in the two

27:01

hundred mile zone. When those

27:03

six months were up, Britain's distant water fishing

27:05

fleet was effectively put out of business.

27:08

Trawler owners were given some restitution

27:10

for the loss of their businesses, and the

27:12

government had reassured the distant

27:14

water fishing industry to expect retraining

27:17

for other work as well as compensation

27:19

for basically having been made redundant. However,

27:22

that support did not actually materialize

27:25

in Britain's Fishermen's

27:27

Association was formed to start fighting

27:29

for compensation, and this was a battle that went

27:32

on until July of two thousand,

27:34

when a settlement of twenty six billion pounds

27:37

was was earmarked for people who

27:39

had been put out of work. As a consequence

27:41

of this international agreement, fish

27:45

stocks began to be depleted anyway,

27:47

with Iceland needing to send boats farther

27:49

afield, which turned into

27:52

conflict with other nations as well, particularly

27:54

Russia and Norway. Yeah,

27:56

there's stocks have rebounded a lot now, but if

27:59

if you look at sharts of the

28:01

fish populations around Iceland,

28:04

there's like a decline over the sixties

28:06

and then a cliff and then they

28:08

are very alarmingly low

28:10

and then they start to recover. Uh.

28:13

There's also a documentary. It was actually

28:15

an Icelandic documentary, but it aired

28:17

on the BBC, and one of the Icelandic

28:19

officials that was interviewed for it talked about

28:21

going to Britain visiting some

28:23

of these ports that had been the distant water fishing

28:25

ports, seeing all of these

28:27

decommissioned ships just sort of derelict

28:30

there in the port, and it reconfirming

28:33

for him. Okay, seriously, we have got

28:35

to we have got to conserve our fishing stocks

28:38

because as a result of our trying to do that, all

28:40

of these people were put out of work and lost their

28:43

livelihoods um which

28:45

I like I thought was an

28:47

interesting sentiment

28:50

to come back to you because at that point it

28:52

was years after the decisions had all been made.

28:55

I like the part with the pirate flags,

28:57

that's my favorite part well,

28:59

and there's also there were things about like the British

29:01

ships basically throwing potatoes at

29:03

people, uh

29:06

I mean at the at the Icelandic ships. So

29:09

this documentary documentary is really

29:11

super interesting because you hear from people

29:13

who were who were on these ships

29:15

and we're uh, we're making

29:17

living, making their living fishing, and

29:20

it really does seem like, especially through

29:22

the first the first couple

29:25

of incidents where it moved from three miles

29:27

to four and from four to twelve, that

29:29

there was kind of a weird spirit of camaraderie

29:33

where where the British,

29:36

the British fisherman would be like, uh,

29:38

yeah, we're gonna do this anyway, and also throw potatoes

29:41

at you, and Iceland was like, that's

29:43

not cool, but we're gonna

29:45

totally be fair when

29:47

we arrest you and take you to court for

29:49

your unsanctioned fishing

29:51

activities. Um. It definitely

29:54

though, just just ruined

29:56

the economy of some particular ports

29:59

cities. And then when you look at Britain's fishing

30:01

industry today, it is completely

30:03

different than it was up

30:06

through nineteen seventy and also a

30:08

lot of the fish that used to be UH

30:10

used to be fished through distant water fishing fleets

30:12

are instead now raised

30:16

through aquacultures that are basically farmed

30:18

instead of UM having this whole international

30:21

agreement to send trawlers

30:25

to other international waters to try to fish.

30:28

Yeah show, thanks

30:36

so much for joining us on this Saturday.

30:39

Since this episode is out of the archive, if

30:41

you heard an email address or a Facebook U r L

30:43

or something similar over the course of the show that

30:45

could be obsolete now. Our current

30:48

email address is History Podcast

30:50

at i heart radio dot

30:52

com. Our old house stuff works email

30:54

address no longer works, and

30:57

you can find us all over social media at

30:59

missed in History and you can subscribe

31:01

to our show on Apple podcasts, Google

31:04

podcasts, the I heart Radio app, and

31:06

wherever else you listen to podcasts. Stuff

31:12

You Missed in History Class is a production of I heart

31:14

Radio. For more podcasts from I heart

31:16

Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple

31:19

podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

31:21

favorite shows.