Lobster War

A Brazilian Air Force Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress flying over the French escort vessel Tartu, off the coast of Brazil in 1963.
Date1961–1963
Location
Waters of Pernambuco, Brazil
Result

Peaceful resolution of the conflict: Withdrawal of French vessels;

  • End of the mobilization of warships on both sides
  • Extension of Brazil's territorial waters to a 200-nautical-mile zone
  • Fishing authorization granted to French lobster fishing boats for five years if a portion was given to Brazilian lobster fishermen
Belligerents
 Brazil France
Commanders and leaders
Jânio Quadros
João Goulart
Ad. Arnoldo Toscano		 Charles de Gaulle
Units involved
Brazilian Navy
Brazilian Air Force		 French Navy
Strength

Brazilian Navy fleet in the dispute zone:
1 Corvette

6 Destroyers

2 Cruisers

1 Aircraft carrier

1 Submarine

Brazilian Air Force:
1 Squadron

1 Squadron

1 Squadron

Offshore Brazil:
First Escort squadron
1 Destroyer:

  • Tartu

1 Aviso

  • Paul Goffeny

Offshore West Africa:
1 Aircraft carrier

1 Cruiser

Second Escort squadron
7 Destroyer:

  • Cassard
  • Jauréguiberry
  • Picard
  • Le Gascon
  • L'Agenais
  • Le Béarnais
  • Le Vendéen

1 Tanker

  • La Baise
Casualties and losses
None[1][2][3] None[4]

The Lobster War (also known as the Lobster Operation; Portuguese: Guerra da Lagosta; French: Conflit de la langouste) was a dispute over spiny lobsters that occurred from 1961 to 1963 between Brazil and France. The Brazilian government refused to allow French fishing vessels to catch spiny lobsters 100 miles (160 km) off Brazil's northeastern coast[5] by arguing that lobsters "crawl along the continental shelf". The French maintained that "lobsters swim" and so they could be caught by any fishing vessel from any country. The dispute was resolved unilaterally by Brazil, which extended its territorial waters to a 200-nautical-mile (370 km; 230 mi) zone and took in the disputed lobsters' bed.[6]

Although the historical incident of coercive diplomacy may have taken place long before the drafting of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the dispute ended with the signing of an agreement on 10 December 1964[4] that granted to 26 French ships the right to fish for a period no longer than five years if they delivered to Brazilian fishermen a certain amount of profit from their fishing activities in the so-called "designated areas".[4]

Incident and dispute

Squadron of the Brazilian Navy. In the center, the cruiser Almirante Tamandaré, escorted by four Fletcher-class vessels.

From 1960, France had lost almost all of its colonies in Africa and, consequently, lost maritime areas where it explored and dominated fishing. These losses, mainly from Mauritania, put the French stock of lobsters in check. In 1961, some groups of French fishermen who were operating very profitably off the coast of Mauritania decided to extend their search to the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. They settled on a spot off the coast of Brazil at which lobsters are found on submerged ledges at depths of 250–650 feet (76–198 m).[7] Since local fishermen complained that large boats were coming from France to catch lobster off the state of Pernambuco, Brazilian Admiral Arnoldo Toscano ordered two corvettes to sail to the area of the French fishing boats.[8] Seeing that the fishermen's claim was justifiable, the captain of the Brazilian vessel then demanded for the French boats to recede to deeper water and to leave the continental shelf to smaller Brazilian vessels. The situation became very tense once the French rejected that demand and radioed a message asking for the French government to send a destroyer to accompany the lobster boats, which prompted the Brazilian government to put its many ships on a state of alert.

The same day, Brazilian Foreign Minister Hermes Lima considered the French approach as an act of hostility: "The attitude of France is inadmissible, and our government will not retreat. The lobster will not be caught."[9] He called a secret meeting with his assistants to review the latest developments in the lobster war against France. Meanwhile, French President Charles de Gaulle reacted to perceived Brazilian interference with the French fishing boats that were looking for lobsters off the Brazilian coast by dispatching on 21 February the 2750-ton T 53-class destroyer Tartu to watch over the fishing boats,[n 1][10] but it decided to withdraw it to soothe tensions.[11] The Brazilian President João Goulart then gave France 48 hours to withdraw all the French boats, but as they refused to leave the area, the Brazilian Navy apprehended the French vessel Cassiopée off of the Brazilian coast on 2 January 1962.[4] By April 1963, both nations were considering whether they should go to war over lobsters.[12]

Tribunal acts

On the scientific thesis

On 6 July 1966, the Administrative Tribunal of Rennes summarized the French government's claims that lobsters are like fish and that since they swim about in the open sea, they could not be considered part of the continental shelf. Brazil claimed that lobsters are like oysters in that they cling to the bottom of the ocean and so were part of the continental shelf.[13] Admiral Paulo Moreira da Silva, Brazil's Navy expert in the field of oceanography who had been sent to assist the diplomatic committee during the general discussions,[14] argued that for Brazil to accept the French scientific thesis that a lobster would be considered a fish when it "leaps" on the seafloor, it would be required in the same way to accept the Brazilian premise that when a kangaroo "hops", it would be considered a bird.[14]

On shipowner claims

It was also observed that the claims of Celton and Stephan, two of the shipowners who sought compensation from France for losses occurred during the January–March 1963 fishing season, had no right to any compensation at all once the French government could not be held responsible for the unsuccessful seizure because of the unilateral position by the Brazilian government.[15]

Decisions of the Conseil d'État then dismissed the allegations that the French government had authorized the plaintiff shipowners to send their vessels to go fish for lobsters on high seas or to off the coast of Brazil. It stated that the licenses given to the plaintiffs accorded to the masters of the vessels and not to the shipowners. The derogation was decided to have authorized the masters to exercise full command of their vessels for fishing on high seas, not in a particular zone. There is no evidence that the French government had authorized such actions and so their claims were rejected.[11]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ On 21 February 1963, a task force from Toulon followed, headed by the aircraft carrier Clemenceau and followed by the cruisers De Grasse, Cassard, Jauréguiberry, the destroyer Tartu, the corvettes Le Picard, Le Gascon, L'Agenais, Le Béarnais and Le Vendéen (all T52 class) and the tanker La Baïse and Paul Goffeny. Initially, it was to be only "one more commission" off the west coast of Africa to show the flag and to perform routine exercises.

References

  1. ↑ Braga, Cláudio da Costa (2009). A Guerra da Lagosta. Armazém das Letras. pp. 90–165–166–167. ISBN 978-8590479017.
  2. ↑ "O dia em que a lagosta virou peixe". FAB Ministério da Defesa. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  3. ↑ "Navios de Guerra Brasileiros". Navios Brasileiros. Retrieved 2023-04-02.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Rainer Lagoni; Peter Ehlers; Marian Paschke; Duygu Damar (2011). Recent developments in the law of the sea. LIT Verlag Münster. p. 26. ISBN 978-3-643-10946-0.
  5. ↑ AP (25 Feb 1963). "France Recalls Ship Sent to Lobster War". The Milwaukee Journal: 22. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  6. ↑ Osmańczyk, Edmund Jan; Mango, Anthony (2004). Encyclopedia of the United Nations and International Agreements. Vol. 2 G-M. Routledge. p. 1334. ISBN 0415939224..
  7. ↑ Reynaud, Paul (1964), In The foreign policy of Charles de Gaulle: a critical assessment, Odyssey Press, p. 118. LCCN 64-529.
  8. ↑ (1963), In Arab Observer National Publications House (Cairo, Egypt), p. 142. OCLC 2641710
  9. ↑ "Brazil: Force de Flap". Time. March 8, 1963. Archived from the original on December 22, 2008. Retrieved 12 October 2010.
  10. ↑ "Ships Augment 'Lobster War' Water Patrol". St. Petersburg Times. 79 (216): 5. 25 Feb 1963. Retrieved 20 February 2012.
  11. 1 2 Kulski, W. W. (1966), In De Gaulle and the World:The Foreign Policy of the Fifth French Republic, Syracuse University Press, p. 360. ISBN 0-8156-0052-6.
  12. ↑ Ziegler, David W. (1990), In War, peace, and international politics, Scott Foresman, p. 362. ISBN 0-673-52023-4
  13. ↑ Ziegler, David W. (1990), In War, peace, and international politics, Scott, Foresman, p. 360. ISBN 0-673-52023-4.
  14. 1 2 Fehlberg, Carlos. "Solução surge através da argumentação e um debate entre os oficiais da Marinha, após crise diplomática chegar ao extremo". Institutojoaogoulart.org.br. Instituto Joao Goulart. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  15. ↑ Lauterpacht, E. (1974) In International Law Reports, Cambridge University Press, Vol. 47, p. 2, ISBN 0-521-46392-0.
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