Maritime history of the United Kingdom a protracted dispute with Iceland over fishing rights in North Atlantic waters. The Royal Navy, along with tugs from the MAFF and British civilian trawlers, was involved in three major confrontations with the Icelandic Coast Guard from 1958 to 1976. These largely bloodless incidents became known as the Cod Wars, and ended with the recognition by Britain of Iceland's exclusive 200 nautical miles fishery zone. The Falklands War was fought in 1982 between Argentina and Britain over the disputed Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Britain was initially taken by surprise by the Argentine attack on the
Cod fisheries fishery off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland became hotly contested by the British and French, in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. The British used small boats close to shore, from which they caught the cod with hook and line. They practiced the "dry fishery" technique, which involved shore-based settlements for the drying of cod on flakes or racks placed in the open air for their subsequent transport back to Europe. The French on the other hand practiced the "green fishery", which involved processing the catch with salt aboard ship. At the same time a fleet of schooners fishing for cod,