The attacks on British and Irish fishing boats in the Bay of Biscay may be the start of a wider war between Spanish and other European fleets as trawlers compete for dwindling fish stocks.
A string of potential flashpoints are looming as Spanish trawlers win the right to fish in other nations' waters as they become members of the European Union.
Norway, keen to become a member of the union, has agreed several concessions. These include giving Spain access to one of the world's last cod-rich waters, off its northern coast, where British vessels have been permitted under an existing Anglo-Norwegian agreement.
Richard Banks of the National Fishermen's Federation, said: "This could lead to problems╔ the Spanish are renowned for creating damage in waters throughout the world. By damage I mean overfishing, fishing with small meshes and catching fish below the minimum landing size. Basically they have no regulation whatsoever."
Under the terms of the Iberian Act of Accession, Spanish fishermen will also gain free and unfettered access to the Western Approaches, the waters that run up to England and Ireland and on to Scotland, on January 1, 1996. British and Irish fishermen believe the bad feelings sparked by the tuna dispute and a longstanding belief that the Spaniards are flouting EU rules could trigger a long winter of hostilities off the British Isles.
Their fears are supported by the latest Irish government figures detailing boardings and detentions of vessels. At the moment 150 Spanish trawlers are allowed in Ireland's 200-mile economic exclusion zone. In 1992 just over 16 per cent of fishing boats boarded by Irish fishery protection ships were Spanish. "Yet every second Spanish boat boarded was arrested for major fisheries offences," a spokesman for Ireland's Marine Department said.
Dublin, fearful that Spain's huge fleet will devastate its coastal fisheries, has been pressing the European Commission to exempt from the free-for-all the Irish "box", an environmentally sensitive area of 78,000 square nautical miles in which measures have been taken to conserve dwindling hake and monkfish.
These measures led to the formation of the Irish tuna fleet which operates about 18 ships in the Bay of Biscay out of Castletown, Co Cork. Last year the fleet landed 2,000 tonnes of tuna worth IRú3.3 million.
The likelihood of hostilities erupting before January has also been raised by this week's attacks in international waters. Spanish boats operating in the Western Approaches dock at Cornish and Irish ports to refuel and de-ice vessels in the winter. John Leach, whose company manufactures nets for the British tuna fleet, said: "They will not be welcome at all. I have talked to a couple of skippers who have said, 'Look out in the winter when the Spaniards are in Castletown.'"
News of the flashpoints comes as three Irish tuna boats set sail with three experimental nets as part of a research programme into alternative designs to drift nets.
