The Economist (20210508) by calibre

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Language: eng
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Publisher: calibre
Published: 2021-05-07T05:33:00.004000+00:00

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This article was downloaded by calibre from https://www.economist.com/britain/2021/05/08/the-pandemic-has-caused-a-shortage-of-cadavers

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Brexit

A fish fight between Britain and France

Jersey is the centre of a row over fishing rights

May 8th 2021 |

IT IS NOT exactly the Royal Navy task force steaming towards the Falklands, but the news that the prime minister has sent ships to protect an island threatened by an angry neighbour has historical resonance. On May 6th two navy vessels headed for the Channel Island of Jersey from the north, while a flotilla of French fishing boats, later followed by two of their own country’s patrol ships, sailed towards it from the south.

The Channel Islands were part of the Duchy of Normandy that stuck with Britain after the French lost them in the 13th century. Crown dependencies whose foreign affairs are run by Britain, they never joined the EU, but relations between Britain and Europe have shaped their history—Germany occupied them in the second world war—and now Brexit is causing tension.

The problem is fishing. Under an agreement between Britain and the EU, French fishermen must acquire licences to fish in Jersey’s waters. To get them, they must provide data showing that they were doing so for five years before the referendum in 2016. But they say smaller boats lack the necessary equipment, and that the licences are arbitrary and restrictive. A member of the French parliament cited the case of a fisherman who used to catch sole and scallops 40 days a year, and had been told he could now catch only scallops, on only 11 days a year. Gregory Guida, Jersey’s assistant environment minister, said the problem was that the boats’ data were “very bad” and that he gave small boats extra time to prepare data using log books if they did not have electronic records.

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