Turbot wars
Turbot warsTurbot wars
On March 9, 1995 Canadian Patrol boats shot warning signals across the Spanish Trawler, the Estai, while it was over fishing in international waters just outside Canada’s legal 200 mile limit. As a result Canada seized the ship. Many thought that Canada was not justified in its actions, however when one examines all the evidence it becomes clear that Canada was indeed justified against the Estai. The Spanish fishermen were fishing out of bounds, they were over fishing turbot that were still immature, and the Spanish were also using illegal nets to catch the turbot.One of the main reasons that the Spanish trawler was taken charge over was because, since the spring of ’94 one of the Canadian fishing laws states that any vessel suspected of over fishing outside the 200-mile limit would be seized, “if they are fishing in the nose or tail there won’t be any negotiations and we will taken enforcement actions”. The Estai was fishing just 400-kilometers from the Canadian coast. Many people felt “it was strange that the only there was any fish left off our coast was beyond the 200-mile limit”. One imperticular person who felt like this was fishing minister Brian Tobin.
While the Spanish were fishing out of bounds there were also fish turbot that was immature. It was proven that Canada claimed that 79 percent of the turbot aboard the Estai were being illegally caught and undersized fish. Evidence that the Estai had netted immature turbot were for smaller then any regulation permits prompted the Newfoundland Premier Clyde wells to brand the vessel’s crew as “environmental criminals”. The Spanish fishermen caught over thousands of pounds of what was called “baby” turbot, this was discovered aboard the Estai. The Spanish government even went to the point as to taking some of the ships turbot caught and put into protection to protect it’s Spanish fleet.
Even worse then the fact that they were fishing out of bounds, and fishing immature turbot, they also had illegal nets as well. Canadian inspectors discovered that the mesh on the nets, that the Spanish vessels were using were 15mm smaller then the smallest size permitted by the NAFO, but even more shocking the boat crew had placed yet another net inside the already too small net. This made it so that no fish could possibly get go of the nylon grasp. “There were fifty of these horrible nets vacuuming our oceans floor” as said by Brian Tobin. It took almost 48 hours to remove these nets from the ocean and be brought to St. John’s Nfld. This took so long because of the weight. The nets topped the scales at over five tones.
As is shown the Turbot war was a scandal done by and created by the Spanish. Canada was justified in its actions against the Spanish trawler. The members of the Estai were wrong because they were fishing out of bounds, over fishing immature turbot and using illegal nets. It is very obvious that Canada did the right thing by taking enforcement on the crew, because if they did not many probably would still be taking all our oceans fish. Leaving Canada’s Grand Banks dry.