The coastal waters surrounding the British Isles were a defining issue in the Brexit referendum a decade ago.
The ability to reclaim control of fishing rights from Brussels and deliver a much-needed boost to coastal communities was seen as the key acid test of whether leaving the EU was a success.
The same issue loomed large as Icelanders went to the polls to decide whether their volcanic island should restart talks to join the bloc.
For a nation of fish-lovers, where the industry is the lifeblood of their economy and national identity, it was a totemic issue easily pushed by the “no” campaign.
Icelanders narrowly voted – 52.5 per cent to 47.5 per cent – against reopening accession talks with Brussels on Saturday.
Some 12,600 votes separated the two sides on the island of 400,000 inhabitants.
Local media reported a turnout of 82.5 per cent – the highest in any vote in Iceland since parliamentary elections in 2009.
Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir, Iceland’s foreign minister, casts her vote on Saturday – HALLDOR KOLBEINS/AFP via Getty Images
While the final results are yet to be officially announced, the country’s state broadcaster and Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the leader of the “nei” campaign, have called it.
The result will be seen as a significant setback for the EU and those officials seeking to expand the bloc beyond its current membership of 27 states.
Many in Brussels believed a “yes” vote was a certainty, given that the bloc has a more stable economy than Iceland, where inflation and interest rates are high.
Donald Trump’s threats to seize Greenland and his interest in the Arctic only strengthened their belief that Icelanders would vote to join their like-minded neighbours.
But they did not account for the importance placed on Reykjavík’s coastal independence.
Despite being part of the EU’s Single Market and Schengen free-movement area, Iceland has long held itself as removed from the rest of Europe.
This is in large part to protect its sovereignty over its fishing stocks.
Fisheries account for 40 per cent of Iceland’s exports and about 8 per cent of GDP.
Joining the EU would have meant joining the bloc’s Common Fisheries Policy.
This would have opened up the country’s waters and their prized breeds of cod and haddock to trawlers from other EU nations.
It would have also probably spelt an end to the volcanic island’s commercial whaling industry.
Iceland, Japan and Norway are the only countries to maintain the practice, which the International Whaling Commission banned in 1986.
Joining the EU would mean surrendering control of fisheries policy to Brussels, which bans the trade of whales and products made from the creatures, such as whale oil.
Whaling has deep historical and cultural roots in Iceland and would have become a powerful symbol of sacrificed sovereignty.
Locals in Hvalfjörður examine the body of a whale in 2006 – Arctic-Images/The Image Bank Unreleased
That was already the case in 2013, when the island’s last round of EU accession talks were put on ice because of the emergence of a Eurosceptic government.
As with Brexit, it proves that economics do not always trump arguments over national identity, sovereignty or security.
British fishermen long complained that while the UK was in the EU, its coastal waters were being decimated by EU trawlers, slashing domestic profitability and productivity.
In fact, Iceland was in a better situation than London. Its membership of the Single Market would have meant it did not have to bargain away coastal sovereignty to align itself better with Brussels on trade.
This was not the case last year when Sir Keir Starmer, the then UK prime minister, opted to open up British fishing waters to EU boats for 12 years in a trade-off for better access to the Single Market.
Many other comparisons can be drawn between Brexit and the Nordic nation’s “no” vote.
Outside the EU, Iceland also maintains an independent trade policy, allowing it to strike deals with countries such as China.
While there is no guarantee Reykjavík would have had to scrap those deals, the threat to exports would have loomed large over voters.
Despite high levels of inflation, Iceland boasts the fifth-highest nominal GDP per capita of any nation in the world.
If it joined the EU, it would be its first net contributor since 1995 and give Brussels new momentum to fling the doors of the bloc open to countries such as Ukraine, Moldova and Montenegro.
A bale of hay with the anti-EU message ‘no thanks’ is displayed by a farmer’s field near Reykjavik – Micah Garen/Getty Images
Some in Brussels were hoping to use Iceland’s potential membership to convince sceptics in EU capitals that enlargement was the right course of action in the coming years.
These arguments over fishing and trade eroded the “yes” camp’s early lead in the polls at the final moments. Britain’s miserable fishermen in the end proved a cautionary tale.
The vote, for now, proves that Iceland is happy with its halfway-house position and does not see any change as necessary.