BC FISH SPAIN 2NDLD (SCHEDULED, PICTURE)/Spain Canada fish row hots up, clashes reported

By Robert Hart

MADRID A bitter fishing dispute between

Spain and Canada flared anew on Thursday with Spanish fishermen

reporting fresh harassment by Canadian patrol boats in

international waters off Newfoundland.

Spanish national radio quoted trawler captains as saying

Canadian vessels tried to cut the nets of two Spanish boats and

made attempts to board one of them.

The European Commission in Brussels said it had called in

Canada's ambassador to the European Union (EU) to protest at

what it called a flagrant violation of international law in the

North Atlantic.

But the ambassador, Jacques Roy, denied there had been a new

incident. "There has been no contact with Spanish vessels, no

attempt to board any Spanish vessel and no attempt to cut nets,"

he told a news conference.

Spanish Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Luis Atienza, in

Luxembourg for an EU meeting on the crisis, said the reported

harassment was "intolerable behaviour" which showed Canada's

lack of will to negotiate.

"Their posture is one of permanent aggression and imposition

of an agreement by violence and breach of international law," he

told a Spanish radio correspondent.

Fishermen speaking to the radio said the nets of the

Galician trawler Jose Antonio Nores were destroyed in the

incident, which occurred about midnight GMT.

The captain of the trawler Ana Maria Gandon told the radio

Canadian launches tried four times to cut his ship's nets but

failed, and came within two metres of his stern in efforts to

board.

"They tried four times to cut our trawling cables. They

tried four times, but luckily for us they couldn't do it.

"Then they tried to board us, coming within one or two

metres and reaching speeds of 10 or 11 knots. Anything could

have happened," the captain said.

The radio said the two trawlers could not be helped by a

Spanish naval patrol boat in the area as they had been separated

from the main group of the fishing fleet.

Negotiations are continuing between the EU and Canada to

seek agreement on fishing quotas in the Grand Banks grounds off

Newfoundland.

The dispute began early last month when Canadian patrol

boats arrested the Spanish trawler Estai in international waters

and charged its captain with illegal fishing.

Canada accuses European fishermen, mainly Spanish and

Portuguese, of overfishing already endangered stocks of

Greenland halibut in the area.

Spain earlier this week rejected a draft EU Canadian accord

which would have given it an 8,000 tonne share of a 1995 total

catch of 27,000 tonnes permitted by the Northwest Atlantic

Fisheries Association (NAFO). Spain last year caught 42,000

tonnes of Greenland halibut, when fishing was unrestricted.

Some 3,000 Galician fishermen on Thursday staged a mass

demonstration outside the Canadian embassy to protest Canadian

actions in the North Atlantic and to demand government support

for their freedom to fish in international waters.

The fishermen and their families, who had travelled in 50

buses from the northwestern port of Vigo, chanted "Pirates,

pirates" and waved banners criticising Canada and also Britain,

which has backed the Canadian case.

Spain has filed a complaint against Canada in the World

Court in the Hague and reintroduced visas for Canadian tourists

in retaliation for Canadian actions in the fishing dispute.