Trawl wire cut in 4 cod war’

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33128, 19 January 1973, Page 9

Trawl wire cut in 4 cod war’

fN.Z.P. A. -Reuter —Copyright) REYKJAVIK, January 18. An armed Icelandic Coastguard patrol boat today cut a trawl wire of the Grimsby trawler Vanessa, which was the centre of an explosive incident in the “cod war” yesterday.

The coastguard says that; the wire-cutting incident! occurred in the early hours! of this morning off Iceland’s! north-west coast. The patrol boat cut one of the Vanessa’s two trawl wires after repeated warnings that she was fishing within

the 50-mile fishing limit now claimed by Iceland. Iceland extended her limit from 12 miles last September, since when British and West German boats have continued to fish inside the new limit, their Governments maintaining that the Icelandic move is a violation of international law. The issue has been referred! to the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The Vanessa had returned inside the new limit during the night, after being chased away yesterdav, according to the coastguard report.

“The Vanessa at first refused our patrol boat’s instructions to leave the area yesterday and six other trawlers came to her aid,” the report says. “The trawlers tried repeatedly to ram the patrol boat, which then prepared her gun for action. "No shot was fired, but the group of trawlers immediately sailed off.”