In the dark night, they leave to "tease the cuttlefish": Pierre Leprêtre, at the controls of his trawler, leaves the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer with a crew of four sailors, to fish in the English waters of the English Channel while they still can.
The blue and white hull of the “Marmouset 3” and its 19.20 m length crosses the Loubet lock.
On board, a Brexit without an agreement on fishing is on everyone's mind.
British waters constitute “70% to 80%” of the turnover of the Boulogne-sur-Mer boat: “If we can no longer go to the English, we can go out of business”, adds. he, fatalistic.
The Boulonnais sailors are also worried about the growing appetite of their Dutch counterparts, the “gravediggers” of the resource, according to Mr. Leprêtre. He railed against the obsession "with numbers, numbers and numbers" of his Batavian counterparts, whose boats are on average double the tricolor trawlers, he believes. "The Dutch feel more at home than we do at home, in Boulogne", adds Christopher, sailor. "When they have fished everything in the English Channel, they will go fishing elsewhere".