OHC
deep green blue collar rainbow
- Location
- Little Beirut
- Pronouns
- they/she
My Bend in the River research has led me on lots of interesting side quests, and I thought this one was of general interest and AH potential enough to start a thread.
In 1966, Soviet fishing fleets began cruising very close to America's Pacific coast, not only within today's EEZ lines but in territorial waters, at times only three miles offshore. They were trawling the bottom for perch and hake and processing them right there on giant factory ships. This infuriated coastal residents in Oregon and Washington, who were correctly concerned that the fisheries were being destroyed, but because this was an issue affecting only a couple states the federal government didn't want to bother opening the large diplomatic can of worms of establishing borders on the open sea. It took 11 years before the Magnuson-Stevens Act created America's contemporary 200-mile EEZ.
In the meantime, there was definitely a potential for nasty confrontations, diplomatic incidents, or even Cod War style armed conflict on the high seas. When Kesey and co were hosting BITR town halls on the coast in 1974, listening to the public's top priorities, the Russian fleet was all the locals wanted to talk about - their concerns a mix of economic, environmental, and nationalistic. Some were saying that if the feds didn't act they were going to start taking matters into their own hands, dumping 55-gallon drums full of concrete into the Russians' nets. It's very easy to imagine a couple of rogue fishermen going ahead with direct action that spirals out of control.
The wrinkle here is that the feds were not interested in this issue at all and were probably hoping it would go away in the name of detente, but the state governments in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska were very invested. Apparently, Tom McCall was publicly discussing buying a surplus destroyer and using it to enforce a 50-mile fishing limit. So what happens when state fish & game agencies accidentally get into a shooting war with the USSR in the late 60s or early 70s? Not World War III, the higher-ups on both sides would stop it before it got that far, but definitely an international incident that could have worldwide repercussions if it comes at the wrong time.
In 1966, Soviet fishing fleets began cruising very close to America's Pacific coast, not only within today's EEZ lines but in territorial waters, at times only three miles offshore. They were trawling the bottom for perch and hake and processing them right there on giant factory ships. This infuriated coastal residents in Oregon and Washington, who were correctly concerned that the fisheries were being destroyed, but because this was an issue affecting only a couple states the federal government didn't want to bother opening the large diplomatic can of worms of establishing borders on the open sea. It took 11 years before the Magnuson-Stevens Act created America's contemporary 200-mile EEZ.
In the meantime, there was definitely a potential for nasty confrontations, diplomatic incidents, or even Cod War style armed conflict on the high seas. When Kesey and co were hosting BITR town halls on the coast in 1974, listening to the public's top priorities, the Russian fleet was all the locals wanted to talk about - their concerns a mix of economic, environmental, and nationalistic. Some were saying that if the feds didn't act they were going to start taking matters into their own hands, dumping 55-gallon drums full of concrete into the Russians' nets. It's very easy to imagine a couple of rogue fishermen going ahead with direct action that spirals out of control.
The wrinkle here is that the feds were not interested in this issue at all and were probably hoping it would go away in the name of detente, but the state governments in Oregon, Washington, and Alaska were very invested. Apparently, Tom McCall was publicly discussing buying a surplus destroyer and using it to enforce a 50-mile fishing limit. So what happens when state fish & game agencies accidentally get into a shooting war with the USSR in the late 60s or early 70s? Not World War III, the higher-ups on both sides would stop it before it got that far, but definitely an international incident that could have worldwide repercussions if it comes at the wrong time.