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The Turbot War (known in Spain as "Guerra del Fletán") was an international fishing dispute between Canada, (supported by the United Kingdom and Ireland) and Spain (supported by the European Union and Iceland) in which Canada stopped a Galician (Spanish) fishing trawler in international waters and arrested its crew. Canada claimed that European Union factory ships were illegally overfishing Greenland halibut, also known as Greenland turbot, on the Grand Banks, just outside Canada's declared 200 nautical mile (370 km) Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). ==Prelude== Territorial seas have changed over time, having begun with a 3 nautical mile (6 km) "cannon shot" territorial sea, followed by the long-standing extension to a 12 nautical mile (22 km) standard. The economic control of the waters surrounding nations to a two hundred nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) became recognised internationally on November 14, 1994, after having been agreed at the conference on the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982. As a self-governing colony and dominion, Newfoundland's foreign policy, just as Canada's, was established by the British government until the Statute of Westminster 1931. However, in 1934, Newfoundland's government voted to be put under the administration of a commission appointed by London; this situation remained until 1949 when the dominion entered Canadian Confederation. Following Confederation, Canada recognized many of the foreign policy agreements Newfoundland had entered under this commission. During the 1950s to the 1970s, the domestic and foreign fishing fleets became increasingly industrialized, with massive factory freezer trawlers fishing out of Newfoundland ports – foreign fleets were based in Newfoundland and could fish 12 NM offshore, while domestic fleets could fish in both the territorial sea and the offshore. By the 1970s the overfishing by industrial vessels in the waters of old western Canada was evident, although each federal government continued to ignore this problem, and even contributed to it by using the issuance of fishing licenses for more inshore and offshore domestic vessels. Between 1973–1982 the United Nations and its member states negotiated the Third Convention of the Law of the Sea – one component of which was the concept of nations being allowed to declare an Exclusive Economic Zone. Although not formally adopted into binding international law until 1982, the possibility of declaring an EEZ became a de facto reality in 1977 with the conclusion of those sections of the Third Conference negotiations relating to maritime boundary and economic control. Many nations worldwide declared 200 nautical mile (370 km) EEZs, including Canada and the United States. The EEZ boundaries became a foreign policy issue where overlapping claims existed, as was the case between Canada and the United States in the Gulf of Maine, Dixon Entrance, Strait of Juan de Fuca and Beaufort Sea, as well as between Canada and France in the case of St. Pierre and Miquelon. But on the whole, the EEZ was very well received by fishermen in eastern Canada for it meant they could fish unhindered out to the limit without fear of competing with the foreign fleets. During the late 1970s and early 1980s, Canada's domestic offshore fleet grew as fishermen and fish processing companies rushed to take advantage. It was also during this time when it was noticed that the foreign fleets now pushed out to 200 nautical miles (370 km) offshore and excluded from the rich Canadian waters, were increasing their harvest on the small areas of the Grand Banks that were outside the area of the EEZ. By the late 1980s the smaller catches of Northern cod were being reported throughout Newfoundland and western Canada as the federal government and citizens of coastal regions in the area began to face the reality that the domestic and foreign overfishing had taken its toll. Scientists have also subsequently pointed out that global climate change may have also played a complementary role. In the end stocks of cod in and around Canada's EEZ were severely depleted.. Reluctant to act at a time of declining political popularity, the federal government was finally forced to take drastic action in 1992 when a total moratorium was declared indefinitely for the Northern Cod.. The immediate impact was felt most in Newfoundland, followed by the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. The nascent Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, organized after the 1977 EEZ declarations to coordinate conservation efforts in Western Canada, the United States, and member nations in Europe (both western and eastern bloc countries), also declared a ban, however it wasn't even necessary – cod which only 5–10 years previously was being caught in record numbers, had vanished almost overnight to the point where it was considered for endangered species protection. The economic impact in coastal Newfoundland was unprecedented. To lessen the impact that its policies of permitting overfishing had exacted upon rural Newfoundlanders, the federal government swiftly created a relief program called "The Atlantic Groundfish Strategy" (TAGS) to provide short to medium term financial support, as well as employment retraining for the longer term. Yet TAGS alone was not going to do it, and Newfoundland and coastal Nova Scotia were bleeding severely as communities began to experience an out-migration on a scale not seen in Canada since the prairie dust bowls of the 1930s. The anger at federal political figures was palpable and with the wholesale rejection of short-term Prime Minister Kim Campbell, incoming prime minister Jean Chrétien's Liberals were going to face the ongoing wrath of voters whose entire livelihoods had been decimated as a result of decades of federal neglect and mismanagement, and whose communities, property values, net worth, and way of life were declining rapidly. In the years since the cod moratorium, federal fisheries policy makers and scientists had scrambled to attempt to find a replacement species that could at least reinject economic stimulus into the affected regions. The ground fishery, while a fraction of what it had been during the cod years, did have some bright spots – one of which was the Greenland halibut commonly known in Canada as turbot. The turbot had decreased in demand due to a common dislike for the taste in the European Union. Canada was not alone in recognizing the growing value of the turbot, and foreign fishing fleets operating off the 200 NM EEZ were beginning to pursue the species in increasing numbers. By 1994, Canada and NAFO had tracked about 50 violations of boats crossing the 200 nautical mile (370 km) EEZ limit to fish illegally within Canadian waters, as well as recording use of illegal gear and overfishing outside Canadian waters. The new federal Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Brian Tobin, directed the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), along with the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) to begin a very aggressive dialogue with the European Union over the presence of its fishing fleet and its practices, particularly the use of illegal trawl nets just outside the Canadian EEZ while fishing for turbot. Tobin's critics in Canada noted that he was likely using his department as a political prop to shore up support during a time of increased social unrest in the region, yet in the winter of 1995, Tobin directed DFO to establish a legal argument which could be made for the seizure of a foreign vessel in international waters using the premise of conservation. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Turbot War」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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