As of Thursday morning, Britain had sent not one but two Royal Navy ships — the HMS Tamar and HMS Severn — to the little island of Jersey in the English Channel.

Although it’s about 14 miles off the French coast, Jersey is a British Crown dependency, and Britain provides for its defense.

Josh Dearing, owner of the Jersey Catch fishing company, told the Press Association: “I looked from the shore this morning and it was just like a sea of red lights and flares already going off at sea.

English and Jersey fishing boats were also in the waters, creating the potential for conflict.

But by Thursday afternoon, the French fleet had retreated, after a meeting with Jersey fisheries authorities, and Britain and France had called back their patrol ships.

In a 2018 episode dubbed the “Great Scallop War,” the antagonists purposefully slammed into each other’s boats in another skirmish over fishing rights.

And as Britain and France tussle over fishing rights, sustainability and quotas, the ministate of Jersey has been caught in the post-Brexit middle and muddle.

Thompson described the scene Thursday morning: He said there were about 100 French trawlers sitting in the mouth of local harbor, and two British Royal Navy ships and a French patrol ship on the scene.

Thompson said that since the start of the year, French fleets have been “fishing in our waters, taking 100 tons of scallops every week, while our boats have been banned from landing the same scallops into the E.U