View source for Cod Wars

The '''Cod Wars''', also called the '''Iceland Cod Wars''' ([[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]: ''Þorskastríðin'', "the cod wars", or ''Landhelgisstríðin'', "the wars for the territorial waters"<ref>The [[Icelandic Coast Guard]]'s name in Icelandic directly translates as "Territorial waters Guard".</ref>) were a series of confrontations in the 1950s and 1970s between the [[United Kingdom]] and [[Iceland]] regarding fishing rights in the [[North Atlantic]].  The name of the conflict was a [[pun]] on the term "[[Cold War]]" (with "[[cod]]" reading so similarly to "cold"),  by the British [[tabloid]] press.

In 1972, Iceland declared an [[Exclusive Economic Zone]] extending beyond its [[territorial waters]], and plans to reduce [[overfishing|over-fishing]]. It policed its [[quota]] system with the [[coast guard]], leading to a series of net-cutting incidents with British [[trawler]]s that fished the areas. As a result, a fleet of British [[Royal Navy|Royal Naval]] warships and [[tug-boat]]s was employed to act as a [[Deterrence (legal)|deterrent]] against any future harassment of British fishing crews by Iceland.

In 1976, a compromise between the two states allowed a maximum of 24 British trawlers access to the disputed 200 [[nautical mile]] (370&nbsp;km) limit.  Two-hundred-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zones became recognized internationally on November 14, 1994, after having been agreed at the conference on the Third [[United Nations]] Convention on the [[Law of the Sea]] (UNCLOS) in 1982.

== Cod Wars Media ==
<gallery widths='160px' heights='100%' mode='traditional' caption=''>
File:ISLEEZ.png|Expansion of the Icelandic [[exclusive economic zone]] (EEZ).*{{legend|#E32636|Iceland}}*{{legend|#FFFFFF|[[Internal waters]]}}*{{legend|#00FFFF|4 [[Nautical mile|nmi]] expansion 1952}}*{{legend|#00CCCC|12 nmi expansion (current extent of territorial waters) 1958}}*{{legend|#4682B4|50 nmi expansion 1972}}*{{legend|#1034A6|200 nmi expansion (current extent of EEZ) 1975}}

File:Maritime Zones under International Law.png|Sea areas, in [[international law]], did not become universally recognised until the [[United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea]] of 1982.

File:Klippuemployment.png|The primary objective of the [[Icelandic Coast Guard]] during the last two Cod Wars was to cut nets in this manner.

File:Rockall EEZ topographic map-en.svg|The current [[exclusive economic zone]]s of Iceland, the [[Faroe Islands]], the [[Exclusive economic zone of the United Kingdom|United Kingdom]] and of [[Republic of Ireland|Ireland]].
</gallery>
== References ==
<references/>


{{history-stub}}

[[Category:History of international relations]]
[[Category:Fishing]]
[[Category:1950s in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:1970s in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:20th century in Iceland]]