“Fishermen, farmers, same fight”, “we want to feed not die”… From 5:30 a.m., around twenty fishermen from several ports in Brittany hung banners on the interregional direction of the sea in Nantes.
They also threw frozen fish, equipment and fishing nets on the facade to protest against the ban on fishing in the Bay of Biscay and against “regulatory pressure”
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“We came to express our fed up.
We are caught by the throat.
We find ourselves largely in the fight of farmers: the pressure of French and European regulations is unbearable,” declared David Le Quintrec, fisherman in Lorient (Morbihan).
One month shutdown
To preserve dolphins, most French and foreign fishing boats must remain docked in the Bay of Biscay until February 20, a ban which distresses the industry despite the public aid announced.
This one-month shutdown, which must be repeated during the winters of 2025 and 2026, was taken after the Council of State, contacted by environmental associations, asked the government to act to reduce the deaths of small cetaceans caught accidentally in the nets.
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“The NGOs are coming after us and easily win their case.
This ban is the last straw after the administrative bludgeoning that we were already experiencing,” says Yoann Lamouroux, a fisherman from the port of Doëlan (Finistère).
Like farmers, fishermen also denounce the “import competition” of products which, according to them, do not correspond to the same standards.
The mobilization “will intensify” in the days to come “if the State is not there,” said David Le Quintrec.