DM Monitoring
LONDON: The United Kingdom and France have dispatched patrol boats to the British Channel island of Jersey amid an escalating row over post-Brexit fishing rights.
French trawler crews angry at restrictions placed on their access to UK fishing grounds after the latter’s departure from the European Union sailed to Jersey in a flotilla in the early hours of Thursday to register their protest. A website that tracks marine traffic showed around 25 French-registered vessels were located near Jersey’s main port of St Helier shortly afterwards. Some of the French flotilla entered the port’s harbour during their protest.
The UK said it had sent two naval gunboats to “monitor the situation” in the waters surrounding the island in response. France reacted in turn following the UK’s move, dispatching two of its own maritime patrol boats to the area. The French navy said the vessels had been deployed on the orders of the French civil authorities.
It did not give details of what they would be doing in the waters off Jersey, which sits 14 miles (23 kilometres) off the northern French coast and 85 miles (140 km) south of the UK mainland’s shores.
Ship-tracking website marinetraffic.com showed one of the two French vessels, Athos, located approximately 20 km south-east of Jersey. It was at least 20 km away from the two British naval vessels, the HMS Severn and HMS Tamar, which were on the south-western side of the island.
