page_title: Turbot War
section_title: Prelude
hierarchical_section_title: Turbot War / Prelude
caption_attribution_description: English: Brian Tobin, Former Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador
context_page_description: The Turbot War was an international fishing dispute and bloodless conflict between Canada and Spain, and their respective supporters.
  On 9 March 1995, Canadian officials from the Canadian Fisheries Patrol vessel Cape Roger boarded the Spanish fishing trawler Estai from Galicia in international waters 220 nautical miles off Canada's east coast baseline after firing three 50-caliber machine-gun bursts over its bow. They arrested the trawler's crew then forced the Estai to a Canadian harbor. Canada claimed that European Union factory ships were illegally overfishing Greenland halibut in the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization regulated area on the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, just outside Canada's declared 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
context_section_description: Territorial seas have changed over time, having begun with a 3-nautical-mile (5.6 km) "cannon shot" territorial sea, followed by the long-standing extension to a 12-nautical-mile (22 km) standard. The economic control of the waters surrounding nations to a 200-nautical-mile (370 km) exclusive economic zones (EEZ) was agreed at the conference on the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982, and became recognised internationally on 14 November 1994.
  As a self-governing colony and dominion, Newfoundland's foreign policy, just as Canada's, was established by the British government until the Statute of Westminster 1931. However, in 1934, Newfoundland's government voted to be put under the administration of a commission appointed by London; this situation remained until 1949 when the dominion entered Canadian Confederation.
  Following Confederation, Canada recognized many of the foreign policy agreements Newfoundland had entered into under this commission. During the 1950s to the 1970s, domestic and foreign fishing fleets became increasingly industrialized, with massive factory freezer trawlers fishing out of Newfoundland ports. Foreign fleets were based in Newfoundland and could fish 12 nautical miles (22 km) offshore, while domestic fleets could fish in both the territorial sea and the offshore.
  Many nations worldwide declared 200-nautical-mile EEZs, including the United States; Canada did so too in 1977. The EEZ boundaries became a foreign policy issue where overlapping claims existed, as was the case between Canada and the United States in the Gulf of Maine, Dixon Entrance, Strait of Juan de Fuca and Beaufort Sea, as well as between Canada and France in the case of St. Pierre and Miquelon.
  Between 1973 and 1982 the United Nations and its member states negotiated the Third Convention of the Law of the Sea—one component of which was the concept of nations being allowed to declare an EEZ. Although not adopted into international law until 1982, the possibility of declaring an EEZ became a de facto reality in 1977 with the conclusion of those sections of the Third Conference negotiations relating to maritime boundary and economic control.
  By the 1970s the overfishing by industrial vessels in the waters of the other provinces of eastern Canada was evident, although each subsequent federal government continued to ignore this problem and even contributed to it by using the issuance of fishing licenses for more inshore and offshore domestic vessels.
  After the Canadian declaration of its 200 nautical mile EEZ in 1977, on the whole, fishermen in eastern Canada could fish unhindered out to the limit without fear of competing with foreign fleets. The Canadian government provided subsidies to increase the domestic fishing fleet and the local industry. At the same time the annual Total Allowable Catch (TAC) was set so high that fishing mortality was double that of the stock's Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY).
  During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Canada's domestic offshore fleet grew as fishermen and fish processing companies rushed to take advantage. It was also during this time when it was noticed that the foreign fleets now pushed out to 200 nautical miles (370 km) offshore and excluded from the rich Canadian waters, were increasing their harvest in the small areas of the Grand Banks that were outside the area of the EEZ. Canada's own fishery scientists assumed that only 5% of the Northern cod stocks was living in international waters regulated by NAFO. 95% of the cod stock was living inside the Canadian EEZ, where only Canadian vessels were allowed to fish. By the late 1980s, smaller catches of Northern Cod were being reported along the Atlantic coast of Canada as the federal government and citizens of coastal regions in the area began to face the reality that domestic and foreign overfishing had taken its toll. In the end, stocks of cod in and around Canada's EEZ were severely depleted. Reluctant to act at a time of declining political popularity, the federal government was finally forced to take drastic action i
caption: Brian Tobin was the Canadian politician who was largely responsible for managing the conflict. This earned him the nicknames "Captain Canada" and "The Turbotonator".[6]
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