Action in the North Atlantic

As a bitter winter wind churned up the North Atlantic waves last week, the Icelandic gunboat Thor headed for a covey of British fishing trawlers that had moved into a forbidden conservation area. Guarding the trawlers, the British frigate Yarmouth kept close cover on Thor. While both vessels were running closely abreast at a brisk 16 knots, one of them--the accounts differ--veered toward the other. Warning blasts were sounded, engines were thrown full astern. It was too late. Yarmouth's bow sliced into Thor, ripping away the starboard wing of the gunboat's bridge.

The Yarmouth-Thor collision--there were no casualties--was the latest incident in the increasingly nasty "cod war" between Great Britain and Iceland (TIME, Dec. 29). What started out as a semicomical high seas skirmish over Iceland's unilateral claim last October to a 200-mile territorial fishing limit, has become a tense crisis for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Two weeks ago, Iceland broke diplomatic relations with Great Britain.

Unless the fishing-rights dispute is resolved, Iceland might withdraw from NATO and rip up bilateral agreements with Washington that allow the U.S. to maintain a naval airbase at Keflavik. The base is a key NATO installation; its facilities include long-range aircraft, radar, ICBM warning and tracking systems and ELINT (electronic intelligence) units. U.S. surveillance aircraft fly from Keflavik to monitor Soviet surface and submarine traffic in the North Atlantic.

The 200-mile fishing limit causing the trouble stems from Iceland's attempts to save a key segment of its economy. The tiny island country (pop. 219,000) wants more control over fishing rights in its coastal areas to maintain fish stocks, especially cod. Sales of cod account for fully 40% of Iceland's exports, but this vital crop could vanish in a few years, Icelanders claim, unless drastic conservation measures are taken. Even British officials concede that cod stocks are dwindling, but argue that the situation is not so perilous as Iceland says.

Dangerous Game. Last fall Iceland proposed that Britain limit its trawlers to 65,000 tons of cod each year caught within the 200-mile limit. Faced with the idling of as many as 6,500 British trawlermen and fish-industry workers, London countered with a proposed limit of 110,000 tons.

The proposal infuriated the Icelanders. Prime Minister Geir Hallgrimsson, who was already in hot water with his public for even making the 65,000-ton offer, was forced to break off negotiations with London and insist that the British take no cod at all. When British trawlers showed up in the disputed fishing grounds, Iceland dispatched a tiny coastal fleet (four gunboats) to cut the trawlers' net lines. The British government responded by sending frigates to protect the trawlers. Lately, the dangerous games between the two forces have grown rougher by the day.

The U.S. and other NATO nations have been trying behind-the-scenes to ease the crisis, without much success The Icelanders are not willing to compromise. As Prime Minister Hallgrimsson told TIME Correspondent Christopher Byron last week, "We are not in the mood for negotiations while British naval vessels are still in our waters."

If the hazardous standoff continues there is a strong chance that the encounters between Icelandic gunboats and British frigates may cause a fatal accident. Should one Icelandic sailor die government officials warn, public opinion may demand a break with NATO Such a break would both please and enhance the political clout of the Communist-oriented "People's Alliance," which has eleven seats in Reykiavik's 1,000-year-old Parliament. It might also benefit the Soviet Union, whose trawlers, during the cod war with Britain have scrupulously observed Iceland's 200-mile fishing limit.

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