Emmanuel Macron sends French gunboat to Jersey as tensions rise in fishing protest Nicholas Cecil UP NEXT
Tensions escalated dramatically on Thursday after a French gunboat headed towards Jersey as Royal Navy ships tracked a flotilla of Normandy fishing boats protesting against post-Brexit licence rules.
Around 70 fishing boats were massing off-shore, with some firing flares amid talk over maritime radio early this morning of a blockade of the island’s main port of Saint Helier.
Two Royal Navy ships, HMS Tamar, which is equipped with machineguns and a helicopter landing pad, and HMS Severn, were tracking the demonstration from a distance. The stand-off escalated mid-morning after it emerged that the French maritime gendarmerie vessel Athos, armed with a cannon, would be arriving in the area “imminently” on a “patrol mission”.
Updated: 6 May 2021, 11:17
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FRENCH fishermen have vowed a new Battle of Trafalgar as a man in a soldier s uniform was seen firing a musket towards the blockade around Jersey.
The row over fishing rights between Britain and France has ramped up as two Royal Navy gunboats were deployed and a French navy vessel speeds towards the Channel Islands.
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The musket fired in a puff of smoke in a bizarre stunt amid the row
Claude La Vaullée, a Norman skipper who has fished off Jersey for 40 years, told Ouest France that he and other fishermen had equipped their vessels to re-stage the Battle of Trafalgar .
Tensions rise off Jersey as Royal Navy ships track French post-Brexit fishing protest Nicholas Cecil
Tensions escalated early Thursday off Jersey as a flotilla of around French 70 boats gathered off Saint Helier harbour in a clash over fishing rights.
Some set off flares and there was talk over maritime radio of a blockade.
Two Royal Navy ships, HMS Tamar which is equipped with machine guns and a helicopter landing pad, and HMS Severn, were keeping a distance, tracking the protest and watching from just over a mile.
It comes after French maritime minister Annick Girardin warned on Tuesday that the country was ready to take “retaliatory measures”, after accusing the Channel Island of dragging its feet over issuing new licences to French boats.
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Boris Johnson said “any blockade would be completely unjustified” as French maritime minister Annick Girardin warned that the country was ready to take “retaliatory measures”, after accusing the island of dragging its feet over issuing new licences to French boats.
Paris has warned it could cut off power to the island, which receives 95% of its electricity from France through three undersea cables, in retaliation for the fallout.
Dozens of French boats arrived at the harbour on Thursday morning, with some crews setting off flares during the so far peaceful protest, according to the Jersey Evening Post.
Downing Street said sending the navy vessels was a precautionary measure to “monitor the situation”.