A fleet of French fishing boats descended on Jersey after threatening to blockade the island’s main port over a post-Brexit fishing rights row.
The UK has sent two Royal Navy ships to Jersey “as a precaution” – HMS Severn and HMS Tamar are patrolling the waters around Jersey.
And French authorities have confirmed to Sky News that a vessel, the Military Ops ship Athos, will be arriving “imminently” to carry out a “patrol mission” – while local reports suggest another is also en route.
The deployment, France says, is to “guarantee the safety” of people at sea and “accompany” the flotilla of around 50 French fishing vessels that had been protesting off St Helier over a lack of access to waters around the Channel island.
The row erupted after Paris threatened to cut off power to the island – which receives 95% of its electricity from France through three undersea cables – and accused Jersey of dragging its feet over issuing new licences to French boats.
French fishermen said they would blockade the main port of St Helier to prevent supplies from being delivered.
Downing Street confirmed Boris Johnson spoke to the chief minister of Jersey, Senator John Le Fondre, the deputy chief minister, Lyndon Farnham and external affairs minister, Ian Gorst, on Thursday and reiterated his “unequivocal support”.
A spokesperson said: “The chief minister updated the prime minister on the latest developments with French fishing vessels around Jersey’s coast.
“The prime minister reiterated his unequivocal support for Jersey and confirmed that the two Royal Navy offshore patrol vessels would remain in place to monitor the situation as a precautionary measure.
“They agreed to stay in touch as the situation develops.”
An official from the French presidency said they were keen that the situation does not worsen.
France views the situation in Jersey as being calm, they said, but added that the UK’s language on the matter had aggravated tensions.
The European Commission, meanwhile, has said it is “engaging in good faith” with the UK as to how to solve the fishing dispute.
It said the terms of the EU-UK trade deal hammered out on Christmas Eve are not being met in waters off the coast of Jersey, due to “additional conditions” imposed on licences for French fishing boats there.
The map below, taken from marinetraffic.com just before 7am, showed the French boats (in orange) heading towards the harbour before later massing near Elizabeth Castle, while the UK ships (light blue) appeared to be holding back.
From around 1.30pm the vast majority of the vessels could be seen turning around and appeared to be leaving the area.
Don Thompson, president of Jersey Fishermen’s Association, said French fishermen had made their “point” during discussions with government officials.
“I don’t think they’ve received any promises, any commitments,” he told Sky News.
He said the threat to cut power to the island had not materialised, “so we are not entirely under siege”.
“In many parts of the world that would be seen as an act of war,” he said.
He added: “We are still looking at what the demands are of the French fishermen. I just don’t think they are reasonable. So the situation’s not resolved.”
Although crews on the French vessels were seen setting off flares after they arrived off the Jersey coast, the protest remained peaceful.
However, footage showed one instance of a UK boat being rammed by a French vessel.
The Commodore Goodwill freight ship was initially “trapped” and unable to leave the harbour this morning, but was later allowed to pass, according to the Jersey Evening Post.
It said several local residents had turned up to watch and police were at the scene.
The 28-year-old told the PA news agency: “There were probably about 60 boats. There were a few hand-held flares and smoke flares going off and apparently a few maybe bangers and stuff going off from the French.”
He said the French fleet – which started gathering from around 4.30am – was mostly made up of “big French dredgers and trawlers” of about 12 metres or more.
Mr Gorst said the French had made clear their frustration over the new Brexit trade deal. He said “tensions are running high” and the “precautionary” action by the Royal Navy “has so far worked”.
He told Sky News: “We have had disproportionate threats emanating from Paris and a potential blockade of our main harbour – and those threats we take seriously to protect Jersey’s interests.
“We want to give French fisherman who can prove they have fished in our waters historically, the rights they had previously – but evidence has to be provided.
“Now there is a little bit of a bureaucratic process because that evidence has to go from Normandy to Paris, to the EU and London and then to Jersey, and it has become apparent since we issued the first licences on Friday that not all of that evidence has been presented, and therefore talking and helping fishermen to be able to provide that evidence means we will be able to adjust their licences, and that is the way through the problems that we are currently experiencing.”
He said Jersey fishermen had “found it bureaucratic to land their fish” in French waters.
Mr Gorst said after the call with Mr Johnson: “We agreed that all sides remain committed to engaging with our partners in the EU and France to resolve the concerns arising from the issuing of fishing licenses under the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which led to today’s protest.”
Mr Le Fondre added: “We updated the Prime Minister on the current position in respect of the French protest and confirmed that Jersey government representatives were meeting the fishermen to hear their concerns, and that we would ensure that lines of communication remained open and constructive.”
A Ministry of Defence spokesman confirmed HMS Severn, described as being able to mount fishing vessels for inspection, and HMS Tamar, one of the Navy’s newest warships, were being deployed to Jersey “to conduct maritime security patrols”.
“This is a strictly precautionary measure and has been agreed with the Jersey government,” he added.
France has accused the UK of using red tape to limit fishing around Jersey, in breach of the Brexit agreement made with the EU last year, and said it is “ready to use these retaliation measures”.
“With regards to Jersey, I would remind you, for example, of electricity transmission by underwater cable. So, we have the means,” French maritime minister Annick Girardin said.
French officials also said they will be closing their Channel Islands’ offices and will stop importing Jersey products into France.
The UK’s environment and food secretary George Eustice said the row was about 17 French fishing vessels that have failed to provide the data needed for Jersey to grant them a licence to fish in its waters.
Ms Girardin said the authorisation of 41 boats to fish in Jersey waters had been accompanied by new demands “which were not arranged or discussed, and which we were not notified about”.
The demands set out where ships could and could not go, how long fishermen can spend at sea, and what machinery they can use, she added.
Mr Eustice said the UK has been asking the European Commission for the data needed to complete the licence applications and will issue them “as soon as they have provided that data”.
“I think the threat that was made is completely disproportionate and unacceptable,” he said.
“We are working through the agreement, Jersey have already licensed over 40 vessels, they’ve been very pragmatic throughout this.
“They’ve also been clear that they’ll process the remaining 17 or so as soon as they put forward the data, so I think it’s unacceptable to make those sorts of comments.”
Mr Eustice said “a small number” of French authorities or individual French fishermen have been “difficult to identify” and get the data from – but Jersey has issued temporary licences as vessels gather the data.
By Alistair Bunkall, defence correspondent
Protecting UK fishing waters is one of the Royal Navy’s oldest tasks, but Downing Street’s decision to send two warships to the Channel Islands is a deliberate posture after France’s initial threat to cut off electricity to the islands.
HMS Tamar and HMS Severn are OPVs – Offshore Patrol Vessels. Despite the rather lowkey name, they are sophisticated ships, especially Tamar which only entered service in 2020 and is equipped with the latest radar, sonar and weaponry technology.
The Royal Navy provides its ships to the UK government (Defra) for a set number of days each year to assist in patrols of waters around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The devolved Scottish government has its own fleet.
The UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone is the fifth largest in the world, extending 200 miles from the coast. The Royal Navy’s role in UK waters is to prevent overfishing by foreign vessels and to enforce quotas. This has long been controversial but Brexit has made it more so.
Sending OPVs to Channel Island waters is, in itself, not controversial, but people I spoke to in the MoD and Royal Navy were not made aware of the announcement until late on. Fisheries post-Brexit were always going to be controversial, but it seems Downing Street is puffing out its chest and sending a strong message to Paris.
