Trawler freed as Hurd steps in

The Spanish fishing vessel Estai was released from Canadian custody last night, after the Foreign Secretary, Douglas Hurd, stepped in to play a key role as middle man in the fishing dispute between the European U nion and Canada.

Mr Hurd released a statement last night indicating that he had spoken on the telephone to his Canadian and Spanish counterparts, Andre Ouellet and Javier Solana, and urged on both the need to proceed urgently through negotiation towards a resolution of the dispute over Greenland halibut quotas.

Emma Bonino, the EU Fisheries Commissioner, told the European Parliament in Strasbourg: "I do believe that this is the first step by which the Canadians are trying to be reasonable again." Only hours earlier, she had stepped up her attacks on Canadian "piracy''. A Canadian spokeswoman in Brussels confirmed: ``A bail bond has been paid, so as far as we are concerned the boat is free to go.''

The EU announced a special meeting of the North Atlantic Fisheries Organisation (Nafo) to be held in Brussels next week, when new attempts would be made to share the halibut quota in a way acceptable to both Canada and Spain.

Mr Hurd said in his statement: "I looked forward to serious negotiations between the parties. The goal of all involved must be to conserve fish stocks effectively in order to allow fishermen, from both the EU and Canada, a viable future. This means proper conservation measures including the setting of a Total Allowable Catch allocated between members of Nafo in an equitable way. It also means strict enforcement to ensure that the rules on conservation are obeyed.

"Both sides should avoid actions which make a solution more difficult. The way ahead lies through negotiations without provocation."

However, European officials` still feared new clashes if other Spanish vessels, reported to be approaching the contested waters, provoked new Canadian retaliation. Brian Tobin, the Canadian fsheries minister, said in Ottawa that Canada was prepared to arrest a second Spanish trawler if they did not stop fishing just outside Canada's 200 miles exclusion area.

Delicate diplomacy, masked by an increasingly vitriolic war of words, brought about yesterday's compromise for the release of the Estai, which was seized by Canadian gunboats in international waters last week and accused of breaching halibut quotas. The EU had insisted on the unconditional release of the boat before any new talks. Canada replied that the Estai could not be released until Spain paid a bail bond of 500,000 Canadian dollars.

It appears that Spain's EU partners finally encouraged Madrid to pay up, but "without prejudice" to the European position on the legality of the seizure. That was enough for Ottawa, and enough for a judge in St John's, Newfoundland, where the Estai was held, to release her. Otherwise Canada and the EU would have faced a complex legal wrangle. Neither Canada nor any EU country except Germany has ratified the new Law of Sea. Experts said yesterday there was no clear legal mechanism for solving the dispute.

The episode may yet bring about some good by exposing the parlous state of law over international waters. The issue will dominate a meeting of the UN fisheries conference to be held in New York in two weeks time.