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"Call me Ishmael" (Moby Dick 1851)

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Edited by John Gynn, Tuesday, 14 Nov 2017, 11:11

Moby Dick breaches in the moonlight close to the Pequod

Moby Dick breaches in the moonlight in sight of Captain Ahab's Pequod (Britannia Images)

On the anniversary of the publication of Herman Melville's Moby Dick in 1851, the House of Commons begins Committee Stage of the European Union (Withdrawal) Bill. 

As the Explanatory Notes to the bill tell us:

"The Bill ends the supremacy of European Union (EU) law in UK law and converts EU law as it stands at the moment of exit into domestic law".

In the background some earlier inter-state arrangements are being reviewed.

Currently submerged legal instruments are being revealed as the EU tide ebbs.

One such instrument is the London Fisheries Convention signed on behalf of the Government of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland in 1964 by Rab Butler, Conservative Minister and MP for Saffron Walden.

The London Fisheries Convention regulated the use of territorial waters for fishing.

"The London Fisheries Convention, signed in 1964 before the UK joined the European Union, allows vessels from five European countries to fish within six and 12 nautical miles of the UK's coastline. It sits alongside the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), which allows all European vessels access between 12 and 200 nautical miles of the UK and sets quotas for how much fish each nation can catch."

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-takes-key-step-towards-fair-new-fishing-policy-after-brexit

The UK Government have triggered another two year withdrawal process - this time article 15 of the London Fisheries Convention and this time the notification is to the UK Government (so Mr. Gove's denunciation will presumably have been to the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs... Mr. Gove).

The UK's membership of the EEC, from 1st January 1973, did not initially bring a Halcyon calm to disputed fishing rights between states.

The Cod Wars which boiled between Iceland and the UK like a political Corry Vreckan and peaked in the mid-1970s evidence that:

https://www.britishpathe.com/video/peacetime-sea-battle/query/icelandic+sea+fishing

Iceland (not an EU member) now has an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of 200 miles and this is accepted internationally other than in the EU where the Common Fisheries Policy takes precedence.

So the UK's withdrawal from the EU opens further dynamics of acceptance and recognition.

Indeed the issue may even bear on public opinion in Iceland regarding EU accession sentiment which, currently, opposes membership.

The doldrums

Whether a result of the adverse impact on UK fishing arising from membership of the EU or otherwise, some emollient, seemingly spread over recent decades by an invisible hand, has calmed the troubled waters which had previously kept the Cod Wars simmering for so long.

The perfect storm

However that period of stability should not be taken for granted. The UK Government's clearing the flotsam and jetsam of earlier regulation such as the London Fisheries Convention, Brexit and economic impact may create a political storm to match Poseidon's fury.

Fishing, politics, resources and law seem inevitably to be gathered in a disputatious relationship.

"But why should the king have the head, and the Queen the tail? A reason for that, ye lawyers?"

(Herman Melville, Moby Dick 1851, Chapter 90)


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