War at Sea !

It seems increasingly likely that Britain will leave the EU without a trade deal smoothing the edges of this separation.  Over past centuries the English and the French have fought many wars and one of the purposes of the EU was to bring the countries of Europe under a common mantle of law and arbitrate disputes peacefully.

Perhaps a harbinger of things to come that we are now seeing the fishing fleets of these two countries doing battle in the English Channel - over Scallops.   This is a marine delicacy that is very popular on both sides of that waterway but now French scallop boats are ramming and harassing their English counterparts to prevent them from dredging up their catch.

It seems the French became concerned that the Scallop beds were becoming over fished and a French court imposed a " season " on harvesting.   French fishing boats are only allowed to remove this delicacy between October 1 and  May `15 each year.    No such law exists on the other side of the channel and the British are free to take Scallops all year.

If this situation has developed while both countries are subjected to the laws and protocols of the European Union, it does not bode well that industrial harmony will prevail once Britain leaves that union.   The French insist that the English fishing boats adhere to the rule that allows fishing stocks to recover and this is degenerating into the two fleets ramming each other and destroying fishing gear in an ugly clash in channel waters.

Battles over fish stocks have being going on for a long time.  Most Europeans remember what were called the " Cod Wars " decades earlier when fishing fleets from many countries did battle in the North Sea.   That revolved around the issue of " ownership " of the fish in the sea and the rejection of fishing quotas by some countries.

The worlds oceans are lawless places and the law of the sea allows a degree of protection around the coastline of individual countries.   This is preserved for use by that country's fishing fleet but " pirate " fishing boats often intrude and each country needs to police its own home waters.

Huge factory processing boats roam the world oceans and long line fishing depletes fish stocks.  There is concern that many fish types are being seriously depleted and fish are a heavy proportion of the diet of many countries.  Gaining acceptance of catch quotas and implementing a sustainable world industry is slowly gaining a degree of acceptance, but violations are common and hard to police on the high seas.

No doubt the EU will move quickly to resolve this scallop war in the English Channel.  The fact that it has broken out before the British leave the union delivers a warning that harmony will be a lot harder to achieve if Britain leaves without a protocol in place to settle future disputes.