Tag Archives: the Cod Wars

This Day In Icelandic History: The First Casualty Of The Cod Wars Strikes

1976 was the year the Cod Wars between Iceland and Britain ended, but it was not without at least one casualty. The Cod Wars comprised a series of conflicts between Iceland and Great Britain over the use of fishing waters in the North Atlantic. Clashes between the two nations were, for the most part, bloodless. British warships and Icelandic trawlers would get intimidatingly close to one another, sometimes even ramming one another, but for much of the time the conflict was diplomatic. All that would change on February 19 of 1976. >click to read< 10:11

40 Years Ago, The Last Cod War Was Sparked

40 years ago yesterday, Iceland expanded its territorial waters from 50 to 200 miles, igniting the third – and last – of the Cod Wars, ending in Icelandic victory. As RÚV reports, October 15, 1975 marked the first time any nation declared for itself 200 nautical miles of territorial waters. The decision did not go unnoticed by the rest of the world, and the British in particular had objections, as they engaged in a considerable amount of fishing in the area Iceland was claiming for itself. What followed would be the most violent of the three Cod Wars. Read the rest here Video here 17:20