Argentina has started a squid war’ as part of its relentless campaign to annexe the Falkland Islands.
It has told its fishermen to catch the creatures before they reach the waters around the British territory.
The inflammatory move is designed to deal a damaging blow to the islands’ booming £90million economy.
The Falklands’ burgeoning fishing industry is worth nearly £45million, and half that comes from catches of Illex squid, a rare delicacy in the Far East.
The row flared as Foreign Secretary William Hague warned Argentina not to intimidate’ the Falklands population through economic pressure’.
Argentina still claims sovereignty over the islands held by Britain since the 1830s despite its crushing defeat in the 1982 Falklands War.
Tensions between the UK and Argentina rose last year after potentially lucrative offshore oil reserves were discovered in the Falklands basin.
The diplomatic rift deepened just before Christmas when Argentine president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner persuaded four South American neighbours to block Falklands ships from entering their ports.
Now Argentina has targeted supplies of squid in a shameless bid to harm the islands’ economy.
By February they have normally reached Falklands’ waters. They remain there until June before moving into deeper waters off Brazil to mate and then die.
But Argentina has sought to cut off the economic lifeline by declaring the squid hunting season open two months early.
A key aim is to ensure thousands of tonnes of them are caught before they migrate into Falklands and international waters.
This would hamper the Falklands ability to make millions of pounds by selling squid and fishing rights to boats from Japan, Russia, Spain and Korea.
Last year around 80,000 tonnes of Illex squid were caught in both Falkland and Argentine waters.
Associated Newspapers Ltd