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Fish fight left a stench

JasonH

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Sun, March 27, 2005

Fish fight left a stench

CHRISTINA BLIZZARD LOOKS BACK 10 YEARS TO JUST HOW CLOSE PEACE-LOVING CANADA CAME TO A FULL-BLOWN FIREFIGHT DURING THE TURBOT WAR

By CHRISTINA BLIZZARD, TORONTO SUN

AH, EASTER. Once again our thoughts turn to chocolate bunnies and fluffy chicks -- and cute little baby turbot. Yes, just 10 years ago, on Easter weekend 1995, the eyes of the world were focused on an East Coast fish fight that pitted a hodge-podge of Canadian boats against a veritable Spanish armada.

A new book reveals just how close this country was to a full-blown firefight with Spain. Ontario's Lt.-Gov. James Bartleman was a top diplomatic adviser to then prime minister Jean Chretien from 1994 to '98 and played a key part in the 1995 Turbot War.

"For the first time in its peacetime history, Canada would resort to force to impose its will, rather than use diplomacy to settle a dispute," Bartleman explains in his new book, Rollercoaster (McClelland & Stewart).

We were "within hours" of a high-seas conflict off the Grand Banks, he writes. Canada, the world's No. 1 Boy Scout, became the unlikely armed aggressor in a game of gunboat diplomacy.

At the time, there was widespread fear here that Spain and other European Union countries were destroying our East Coast commercial fishery. Paying no attention to quotas set by the North Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), Spanish factory boats would park outside Canada's 320-km territorial limit and scoop up vast amounts of cod that had migrated from Canadian waters.

In 1992, the Canadian government placed a moratorium on fishing northern cod in its waters. With more than 30,000 fishermen and fish-plant workers unemployed and the feds pouring subsidies into the region, Canadians were in no mood to tolerate foreign boats filching our fish -- and not just cod, either.

In 1994, Ottawa passed Bill C-29, which amended the Coastal Fisheries Protection Act to assert Canadian jurisdiction over the continental shelf beyond the 320-km limit. It also authorized fisheries officials to use force to implement the measures.

NAFO had agreed to reduce the amount of turbot that could be taken in 1995 by 23,000 tons. The EU, however, allocated itself a higher turbot quota. Canada rejected that proposal and insisted that Spain and Portugal withdraw their fishing vessels from sensitive areas of the Grand Banks. Spain was accused of plundering the turbot supply, even illegally scooping up the youngest fish.

It all came to a head in March and April 1995, and culminated in a showdown that Easter weekend. The EU warned Canada not to apply Bill C-29 to any of its members, and believed Canada would comply.

"To the Europeans, or at least to a jaded minority, our country was also the quintessential civilized, postmodern nation that seemed to believe that war had gone out of style," Bartleman recalls.

No one thought Canada would go to war over baby turbot. How wrong they were.

When talks with the EU went nowhere, Canada moved to arrest a 65-metre Spanish fishing trawler, the Estai. An RCMP team and 42 fisheries protection officers were dispatched in two patrol boats, along with a coast guard vessel. Crew members manned 50-calibre machine-guns on the boats.

On March 9, 1995, the ships gave chase to the Estai. Bartleman was at the table in the "war room" when the order was given to fire warning shots across the Estai's bow. If the Spanish boat didn't stop, the Canadians were authorized to shoot out its propeller -- although Bartleman notes he worried about the accuracy of the gunners and how they could guarantee that only the propeller was hit.

Spanish military officials had already warned the Canadian military that they had been authorized to use "deadly force" -- meaning they were obliged to open fire to protect their civilian ships. Canadian forces were given similar orders.

"I was just absolutely sure we were just heading towards a conflict in which I was certain people were going to die," Bartleman said in an interview last week.

"People thought it was like something on television and it wouldn't be real blood and real tears, and thank God at the last minute we managed to avoid that."

After four bursts of machine-gun fire, the Estai came to a stop. The boat was seized and escorted to St. John's, Nfld., where it was greeted by a jeering crowd.

On March 29, Brian Tobin, then fisheries ministers (and later Newfoundland premier), pulled off a major public relations coup when he posed on a barge on the East River in New York, in front of the United Nations, with a frozen baby turbot and a net from the Estai -- which clearly showed Spain was violating NAFO rules and using a mesh that would scoop up even the smallest fish.

MEMORABLE QUOTE

"No baby fish can escape that monstrosity," Tobin declared, before uttering the most memorable quote of the time:

"We're down, finally, to one last lonely, unloved, unattractive turbot, clinging on by its fingernails to the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, saying, 'Someone reach out and save me in this 11th hour as I'm about to go down to extinction.' "

A week later in Madrid, a furious crowd pelted the Canadian Embassy with eggs. That prompted The Toronto Sun front-page headline: "Now they're killing baby chickens!"

But the battle to win the hearts and minds of the world was tough. Canada was alone in the Turbot War. Its traditional allies, the U.S. and the U.K., both indicated they felt international law was on the side of the Spanish.

Bartleman's book relates the cloak-and-dagger-like atmosphere as diplomatic efforts went down to the wire. An informant he dubs "Deep Throat" was "right inside the EU daily briefings, which meant that we knew that the diplomatic process was working and that prevented hotheads from pushing it to the extreme," he told me.

Shortly before Easter, a deal to resolve the conflict fell through and Canada prepared to make another high-seas arrest. Officials here sent word to their Spanish counterparts that we were prepared to use deadly force.

On Easter Saturday, April 15, "Deep Throat" called Bartleman to say EU ambassadors had met in an emergency meeting throughout the night. Spain had agreed to a settlement, and a potentially deadly conflict was averted.

A Canadian-based Spanish journalist says the 10th anniversary means the Turbot War is again making headlines in the northern province of Galicia, where the fishing fleet is based.

"It will be always in the back of the memory for many people," said Julio Cesar Rivas, Canadian correspondent for the Spanish national news agency EFE. Although he recalls people in Spain demanding their government send an aircraft carrier, destroyers and a submarine to fight Canada at the time, he believes the bad blood is now largely forgotten.

He points out that the company that owns the Estai recently went to federal court in Newfoundland claiming Canada's actions were illegal and they suffered economic damage -- but Canadian newspapers didn't even cover the story.

Bartleman said March and April 1995 marked "a tremendous aberration in Canadian foreign policy."

"At the same time we were out preaching the benefits of 'soft power' and telling other countries to use negotiation, we were using force -- and the sad part of it is that force was working."

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2005/03/27/973659-sun.html
 
Talking from someone who was there, I am underthe impression that any Spanish naval incursion, by their one carrier and handful of Harriers, would have been little more than target practice for our land based CF-18s, although there was doubt if our Seakings were up to the task of rescuing so many shipwrecked Spanish sailors.
 
Britney Spears said:
Talking from someone who was there, I am underthe impression that any Spanish naval incursion, by their one carrier and handful of Harriers, would have been little more than target practice for our land based CF-18s, although there was doubt if our Seakings were up to the task of rescuing so many shipwrecked Spanish sailors.

Pretty interesting. But would the CF18s in Bagotville be in range? And I wonder if they were alerted at the time.

It'd be interesting to speculate, if it had turned into a shooting conflict:

1) How would our history be different over the past 10 years;
2) Who would have "won;"
3) Which air/naval units would have been involved.

I'm very glad it didn't come to that, we probably would have lost people, and it wouldn't have solved a thing.
 
I am disappointed but not surprised that there is no mention of Canadian naval involvement. Go figure.

It'd be interesting to speculate, if it had turned into a shooting conflict

its not nice to speculate it was not a game but a very tense time.
 
Britney Spears said:
Talking from someone who was there, I am underthe impression that any Spanish naval incursion, by their one carrier and handful of Harriers, would have been little more than target practice for our land based CF-18s, although there was doubt if our Seakings were up to the task of rescuing so many shipwrecked Spanish sailors.

Correct me if I am wrong here, but I seem to recall that the Spaniards did try to send a destroyer ut it died and had to turn back before it got half wayt to the grand banks. I also remember Don Cherry applauding Brian Tobin on Coach's Corner, something like "Atta boy you Brian Tobin boy!."



 
I must admit, my knowledge of the incident is really lacking, i was 13 at the time and all i really remember is hearing a report on the radio while in the car with my father (I think we were going to the Scarborough Town Centre... but I digress), from what I remember, the report said that we dispatched a destroyer - but I don't recall what was said about the Spanish fleet.  yeah, my memory is really vague. 

What vessels were involved in the incident?


edited: poor wording on my part. 

 
Trust me..I was on the Terra Nova who was involved and the Spaanish did not dispatch any destroyer.
 
Sherrin it was 10 years ago..I know we were and I believe the Athabaskan was as well beyond us two I no longer remember.
 
Thanks, just curious and procrastinating
Sorry if I sounded like a pesk.

 
Ex Dragoon: Didn't mean to imply the Turbot crisis was a game, apologies if thats how I made it sound.

I meant to look at it in a reflective way, to pick up some lessons learned.
 
For the record, the Spanish warship dispatched was the 1200-ton OPV "Vigia", armed with a 76-mm and a couple of MG's. Problem was, it was so cold that the ice which developed on it's masts caused instability, so they decided to turn back.

I remember seeing a photo of HMCS Halifax being sent to counter it, but I don't know of any other Cdn warships involved.

It's frightening to think that this type of escalation could have occurred over a fishing dispute! However we do need to be more active in curbing overfishing.
 
At the time I thought we were about to get our asses handed too us on a plate by the Europeans.  Fortunately, they saw the light, otherwise... we would have lost.

Tom
 
Allen said:
For the record, the Spanish warship dispatched was the 1200-ton OPV "Vigia", armed with a 76-mm and a couple of MG's. Problem was, it was so cold that the ice which developed on it's masts caused instability, so they decided to turn back.

Allen, thanks for clearing that up. I  knew they had tried to send some sort of ship. I also seem to recall HMCS Halifax being involved, I remember the front page of the Toronto Sun having a picture of one of our ships with the headline "We Won't Take your Bull!"

I also remember that some British fisherman were flying the Canadian flag on their boats in support of us, apparently the Spaniards had raised their ire as well.
 
Spanish fishermen (CBC do'nt like the word "fishermen") have been catching many species of
North Atlantic fish stocks for over 400 years. The various fishing fleets who ply the North Atlantic
and Canadian waters contribute a great amount of money to the Newfoundland economy. The
socalled "turbot" war was a political creation, which vanished very quickly when reports surfaced
that many Spanish trawlers and even long-liners were leased ships, many from the EU and the
UK - the word in Halifax at the time was that the Spanish vessel in focus was a leased ship from
Gimsby, England, United Kingdom. The Republic of Spain too, I understand is a member of NATO
-little difficult to believe that a Canadian military or Coast Guard ship would cause grief to a fellow
NATO member, one would think. MacLeod
 
For those interested in the "Turbot War" - there is a significant amount of information on the
North West Atlantic Fisheries site on the net. The Spanish destroyer, (which in fact is a rather
small vessel) is shown tied up at a jetty near the Esso fuel tanks in Saint John's Harbour NF.The
entire scenario in 1995 was blown out of proportion - fact is that most "illegal fishing" is done
by Canadian, and a lesser extent U.S. based fishermen. It usually comes down to the question
"just what is exactly "illegal" - Spanish fishermen were in fact east of Canadian waters when
challenged (their quotas were cut from 60,000 metric tonnes to 28,000) - but the decision
was based on saving and retaining cod stocks. In March 2005, North Atlantic cod stocks are
reported only 5% of what they were in the 1970's. The answer is of course to stop fish
harvesting in the Western North Atlantic - but how would one do that? Regards MacLeod
 
I was in Bosnia, with CANBAT2 when this went down. I remember travelling through the Spanish IOR. They weren't too happy with us, yelling and making angry gestures at us.
 
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