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Chavez to Blair : Give back the Faulklands

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  • #61
    Sorry guys but more fuel to the fire.


    Argentina 'arrests' British squid trawler
    Oliver Balch in Buenos Aires
    (Filed: 26/02/2006)

    Argentina has impounded a British trawler in a dramatic escalation of a dispute over squid fishing rights off the Falkland Islands, raising tensions between the two countries.

    The high seas "arrest" of the trawler last week follows a low-level "squid war" that has been waged amid allegations of over-fishing and infringements of sovereignty. Argentina claims that the John Cheek was illegally fishing in the Argentine economic exclusion zone last Monday.

    The British Embassy in Buenos Aires, however, believes that the trawler, now under Argentine coastguard control at the port of Comodoro Rivadavia, 945 miles south of Buenos Aires, was in neutral international waters.

    Mario Domingo Daniele, an Argentine senator, recently branded the British fishing licences that are issued by the Falklands as "illegitimate" and declared the waters "part of what belongs by right to our country".

    The Argentine Chamber of Fishing Industries (ACFI) has called for "strong penalties" for the John Cheek.

    "We completely reject all fishing undertaken by the colonial British administration in the Malvinas, which contravenes the rights of Argentina over the islands," said Mariano Perez, the director of the ACFI.

    Falkland Islanders argue that the real issue at stake is Argentina's renewed desire to threaten the existence of the islands as British territory. Meanwhile environmental groups say that over-fishing of the waters will devastate the squid population. The World Wildlife Fund recently released a satellite photograph taken by the University of Sienna that shows the extraordinary extent of night fishing around the Falklands.

    Although several boats from the Far East have previously been detained for squid fishing without a licence, this is the first time that a British vessel has been seized. The 31 crew offered no resistance when the Argentine inspectors boarded the John Cheek. The boat's Spanish skipper, Jaime Cortizo, is still with the vessel in Argentina.

    Jan Cheek, the co-owner of the impounded vessel, said that the Argentines themselves encouraged over-fishing in a calculated move by the Argentines to damage one of the Falklands' main sources of income. "The Argentines are quite happy to harm their own stock if it will harm our financial viability. They send their ships out at least a month earlier than we do," she said.

    Javier Corcuera, the director of Vida Silvestre, an Argentine environmental group, said the two governments were using squid as a "sovereignty tool" in the tussle over the future of the Falklands.

    "Argentina gives lots of permits to fish squid and the Falklands are doing the same because they both want to exert their presence in the region," he said. Emiliano Ezcurra, the campaign director for Greenpeace Argentina, added: "Many ships enter our waters and literally steal Argentine fish."

    The John Cheek is also accused of operating with a Falklands flag, which Argentina does not recognise. Harriet Hall, the Falklands' acting governor, rejects this: "We have no doubt over our sovereignty and therefore the vessel has the right to fly the Falklands' ensign."

    Argentina invaded the islands in 1982 but was forced out in a conflict that claimed the lives of 272 British servicemen and civilians and 649 Argentines.

    Catches of Illex squid, the Falklands' most important fish stock, have plummeted in recent years. Last year, the Falklands registered 1,700 tons of squid, a 15-year low and a startling reduction on the 150,000-ton catch of 2001.
    Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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    • #62
      We just might see another fist to cuffs over the islands in the next few years. That brand new destroyer the Brits built may get a field test.
      Last edited by Dreadnought; 27 Feb 06,, 18:10.
      Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

      Comment


      • #63
        Originally posted by Dreadnought
        We just might see another fist to cuffs over the islands in the next few years. That brand new destroyer the Brits built may get a field test.
        Only in 2008. :(

        I doubt they have missiles which can challenge Asters.
        HD Ready?

        Comment


        • #64
          Originally posted by HistoricalDavid
          Only in 2008. :(

          I doubt they have missiles which can challenge Asters.
          I doubt they have anything to challenge the Brits with that couldnt be overcome by the Brits military forces.
          Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

          Comment


          • #65
            Originally posted by Dreadnought
            I doubt they have anything to challenge the Brits with that couldnt be overcome by the Brits military forces.
            I suppose... but we are a bit tied up at the moment with an even smaller Royal Navy than in 1982.

            I doubt it's even going to occur. Argentina is democratic at the moment and I doubt the memory of humiliating defeat from 8,000 miles away has quite faded.
            HD Ready?

            Comment


            • #66
              Originally posted by HistoricalDavid
              I suppose... but we are a bit tied up at the moment with an even smaller Royal Navy than in 1982.

              I doubt it's even going to occur. Argentina is democratic at the moment and I doubt the memory of humiliating defeat from 8,000 miles away has quite faded.
              Lend/Lease...LMAO ;)
              Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

              Comment


              • #67
                Originally posted by Dreadnought
                Lend/Lease...LMAO ;)
                Nimitz, please. :)

                Or even an Iowa... goodbye Argentinian coastline!
                HD Ready?

                Comment


                • #68
                  Originally posted by HistoricalDavid
                  Nimitz, please. :)

                  Or even an Iowa... goodbye Argentinian coastline!
                  Hey Hey we are talking DDG's or FFG's here not the big sticks....lmao ;)
                  Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                  Comment


                  • #69
                    Actually the RN turned down the offer of 5 Aegis Ticos (the first 5) as a stop gap measure before the Darings are commissioned.
                    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

                    Comment


                    • #70
                      Originally posted by gunnut
                      Actually the RN turned down the offer of 5 Aegis Ticos (the first 5) as a stop gap measure before the Darings are commissioned.
                      Our arms acquisition policy never was that clever.

                      Originally posted by Dreadnought
                      Hey Hey we are talking DDG's or FFG's here not the big sticks....lmao ;)
                      Meanies. :(
                      HD Ready?

                      Comment


                      • #71
                        Originally posted by HistoricalDavid
                        Our arms acquisition policy never was that clever.



                        Meanies. :(
                        LOL If you Brits didnt scrap Vangard you would have one as well.
                        Completely awful all were scrapped when they gave such good service I might add. ;)
                        Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                        Comment


                        • #72
                          Originally posted by Dreadnought
                          LOL If you Brits didnt scrap Vangard you would have one as well.
                          Completely awful all were scrapped when they gave such good service I might add. ;)
                          Well, when we were faced with so much debt to pay off, so much to rebuild, a Cold War to fight, war weariness and so on, a battleship is a luxury to say the least, but especially for someone as small as Britain.
                          Last edited by HistoricalDavid; 27 Feb 06,, 21:16.
                          HD Ready?

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                          • #73
                            Its quite funny how so many people were for scrapping and retiring our Iowa class as well and say they were weak here and you cant do this or that with them. When throughout WWI,WWII they (battleships) were common on the checklist as to a countries might through its navy and the "Big Gun Club" admirals. You just cannot ignore the fact of over 80 years of service through sea dominence and expect people that followed them to give them up to new age technology that is but few years old and really has no combat experience with the exception of drills and simulations. Someday absolutely but you just have too many people that read very little and the first thing out of their mouths is too old or too much to man. If they truelly understood the protection they afforded through out the conflicts they would not be so fast as to ridacule something that has a long and distinguished record of service to a Navy.

                            All countries went into debt over building them. Germany,Britain,U.S.,Japan,Italy,France,Greece,Rus sia etc.
                            As I mentioned above they were on a countries checklist of what makes them a force to be reconed with therefore they all went into debt and a major arms race.

                            Actually I wished the Brits would have museumed a few or atleast one. It would have been great just to tour even one of the RN's for comparrison. Where as we are fortunate to still have 8 afloat and museumed :)
                            Last edited by Dreadnought; 27 Feb 06,, 21:26.
                            Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

                            Comment


                            • #74
                              HMS Belfast

                              As above. I know She is only a Cruiser, but a "must see" if in town.

                              And the Argies wouldn't bloody dare again.;)
                              Where's the bloody gin? An army marches on its liver, not its ruddy stomach.

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                              • #75
                                Originally posted by HistoricalDavid View Post
                                Nimitz, please. :)

                                Or even an Iowa... goodbye Argentinian coastline!
                                That would be foolish, Argentina has a nice coastline.

                                Bomb the interior, it's much crappier.

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