A tense post-Brexit standoff between France and Britain eased Thursday, as London recalled two navy vessels sent to Jersey and protesting French fishermen returned home without blockading the island's main port.

The latest blow to cross-Channel relations was caused by angry French fishermen protesting over new fish licensing arrangements on the Channel island following Britain's departure from the European Union.

At dawn, a flotilla of around 50 trawlers had massed in front of the Saint Helier harbour on Jersey, a picturesque self-governing territory that is dependent on Britain for its defence.

Fears of a blockade prompted British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to send two Royal Navy gunboats to the area, with France following suit by sending two of its own coast patrol vessels.

But after the fishing vessels withdrew in the afternoon, Johnson ordered the return of the navy vessels.

"Given the situation is resolved for now, the Royal Navy Offshore Patrol Vessels will prepare to return to port in the UK," said a statement from his office.

"We remain on standby to provide any further assistance Jersey requests."

Jersey lies just off France's northern coast and its rich fishing waters were previously open to French boats before Brexit tore up the previous arrangements.

In the middle of the afternoon, after hours of bobbing around while letting off the occasional smoke flare, the French trawlers began withdrawing.

"The show of force is over, now it's politics that has to pick up the baton," said Dimitri Rogoff, president of the fishing association in the French Normandy region.

The British navy vessels HMS Severn and HMS Tamar were sent to Jersey's waters to "monitor the situation", the UK government said, while a French military source said the situation was "very calm overall".

Johnson spoke to Jersey's Chief Minister John Le Fondre on Wednesday and the pair "stressed the urgent need for a de-escalation in tensions", according to a statement.

- Electric threat -

In the run up to Thursday's protest, French fishermen had been loudly complaining about new licensing requirements announced by Jersey authorities.

They view the paperwork as deliberately obstructing them -- the same charge made by other French boat owners who have denounced delays in the licensing process for access to British waters.

At the end of last month, more than a hundred French fishermen briefly blocked trucks carrying British fish to processing plants in the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.

French Maritime Minister Annick Girardin escalated tensions with Jersey on Tuesday by warning that France could cut off electricity supplies to the island, a threat condemned by London as "unacceptable".

Jersey Minister for External Relations Ian Gorst told AFP that Girardin's comments were "completely inappropriate".

"Let's not have rhetoric, let's not have threats -- let's sit down with the EU," he said. "We have to do the hard work and find ways to resolve the issues."

But France's Europe Minister Clement Beaune accused Britain of being to blame for the spat, insisting that French fishermen should have the right to continue working in these waters.

"Our wish is not to have tensions, but to have a quick and full application of the (Brexit) deal," he told AFP.

One of the French patrol boats deployed to the area was from the gendarme military police force, while the other was a coastal security vessel operated by the maritime ministry.

- Old rivalry -

The escalating tensions landed on the front pages of most British newspapers.

"Boris sends gunboats into Jersey," read a Daily Mail headline, while The Daily Telegraph said Johnson had sent the navy to the island to "face the French".

On social media, some pointed out that the standoff was taking place just a day after the 200th anniversary of the death of Napoleon, whose rivalry with the British crown was legendary.

Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst from the Eurasia Group consultancy, suggested Johnson's decision to deploy the navy would give him a boost on a day when Britons were voting in local and regional elections.

"Although feelings are running high among the fishermen, some concessions over licences is likely to eventually calm matters," he wrote.

The scenes in Jersey stirred memories of the so-called "Cod Wars" of the 1960s and 1970s between Britain and Iceland which saw London deploy navy vessels to protect British trawlers.

In October 2018, dozens of French scallop fishermen faced off with a handful of British rivals off Frances coast, with a few vessels ramming into each other amid stone-throwing and smoke-bombs.

The Franco-British fish feud: How it started
Paris (AFP) May 6, 2021 - A Franco-British feud over access to prime fishing waters escalated on Thursday as the two countries deployed patrol and navy ships near the Channel island of Jersey.

Here's a look at the origins of the conflict and why the waters are so important to Britain and its neighbours:

- Brexit fallout -

Access to Britain's rich fishing waters was a major sticking point in post-Brexit talks.

A transition period was agreed in which EU fishermen would give up 25 percent of their current quotas -- the equivalent of 650 million euros per year -- in 2026. The deal would then be renegotiated every year.

Until then, EU vessels have access to an area between six to 12 nautical miles from Britain's coast, but they have to ask for new licenses.

This is where things got complicated.

The French side says London acted outside of the deal by tightening conditions for access to UK waters.

In order to obtain a licence to fish the French vessels must be able to show British authorities they were already operating in British waters in 2012-2016.

That can be established easily enough for larger vessels through geo-localisation equipment but not so for smaller ships that are not required to have the technology, according to French fishing group CNPMEM.

In addition, a new vessel launched from 2016 must prove it is replacing one that was operating in UK waters.

- 'Inadmissible' requirements -

France say its fishermen have received just half of some 200 licenses they requested from London.

The Channel Island of Jersey, a British Crown dependency not part of the United Kingdom, has only doled out 41 of 344 licences that were applied for and the few have "inadmissible" requirements.

One fisherman who used to fish in Jersey waters some 40 days a year was given access for just 11 days this year, and only to catch scallops, according to a French lawmaker.

Jersey authorities said they upheld the EU-UK deal.

Tensions boiled over on Thursday as 50 French trawlers massed in protest in front of the Saint Helier harbour on Jersey.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson responded by deploying two royal navy gunboats to the area and France followed suit with two of its own coastal patrol vessels.

The French trawlers headed home later in the afternoon.

Jersey fishermen have their own gripe.

"The French fishermen out there want conditions removed from their licences so that they can fish with no constraints in our waters, whilst our boats are subject to all sorts of conditions," Don Thompson, president of the Jersey Fishermen's Association, told the Good Morning Britain TV show.

- Rich pickings -

British-Channel Island waters provide rich pickings.

Fish that lay eggs along the French coast and all the way up as far as Denmark soon leave the zone for the deeper and colder waters off Britain further north, according to the French Institute for Exploitation of the Sea, Ifremer.

Climate change has accentuated that fact, particularly for cod and plaice, both species which abound in the North Sea.

Ifremer notes that the area of the Channel off Jersey is a transitional zone between the Atlantic and the North Sea which offers "succession of specific habitats" for various species including lobster and crab.

Around 20 percent of the French overall catch comes from British waters but that rises to 28 percent for the Netherlands, 35 percent for Ireland and 50 percent for Belgium, according to 2011-2015 data.

Various other EU states are also affected by the Brexit fallout -- including Spain and Germany.

The United Kingdom exports between 60 and 80 percent of its catch and the EU last year absorbed some 70 percent of British fish exports.

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UK sends Navy ships to Jersey as French fishing row escalates
London (AFP) May 5, 2021
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday sent two Navy patrol vessels to Jersey over concerns that French fishermen could blockade its main port in an escalating post-Brexit row. France warned Tuesday it was weighing its response after the UK imposed rules governing access for French fishing boats near the Channel Islands, and said it could involve the electricity supply via underwater cables. French fishermen also plan to converge on the island's main port St Helier on Thursday, althou ... read more