For the first time, the National Fisheries Committee is calling for dead days in French ports to demand government responses to a series of "
attacks"
weakening the sector, in a climate of tensions never seen since the Brexit crisis.
Not a boat at sea, not a fish sold, no fish trade, no processing: the unprecedented
“dead line”
operation is scheduled for Thursday and Friday, with each local committee choosing the day or days that suit it.
In Boulogne-sur-Mer, the main French port, where the mobilization started on Sunday evening with the blocking of the port, the auction closed on Tuesday: fishermen warned European ships spawning in the Channel not to come and unload their fish .
"The cup is full and we must give a future to all the players in our sector because today the horizon is dark
," says the National Fisheries Committee.
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The committee specifies that these
"dead sector"
days are the result of
"unitary action"
, coordinated between fishermen, auctions and wholesalers: because in the long term,
"the disappearance of part of the fleet will directly threaten the entire employment in the ports, right up to the processing plants”
.
At the end of a meeting with the national committee, the Secretary of State for the Sea Hervé Berville said he was
"in solidarity with the spirit of the movement"
and promised to
"strengthen the collective work"
undertaken, in particular against certain European regulations, in a statement to AFP.
Harmonization of fisheries control rules
For several days, the anger has been mounting: muscular demonstrations in Rennes or Lorient, blockages in Boulogne, where the mayor Frédéric Cuvillier called in the afternoon to “stand up” at
European
level, against regulations which will
“ban trades, traditions, economies and ultimately human heritage”.
Professionals denounce
"unsuitable European regulations"
, in particular the ban on bottom fishing in marine protected areas by 2030, and the decision of the Council of State imposing the closure of certain fishing areas within six months. in the Atlantic in order to preserve the dolphins whose strandings have multiplied in the Bay of Biscay.
They are calling for the payment of diesel aid,
some of which has not been paid for six months
, and the harmonization of fisheries control rules and vessel safety in France, where a complex administrative mille-feuille paralyzes investments lack of visibility.
In a word, they rebel against
the "disengagement"
of the state.
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The observation is bitter, while the French fleet has already decreased by more than a quarter in 20 years and the national fishery represents only 25% of the fish sold on the stalls.
After Brexit, which resulted in 90 ships being sent for scrapping, professionals consider the very existence of the sector
"compromised by incessant harassment and piecemeal support without support towards a vision for the future"
.
They expressed this anger to President Emmanuel Macron in an open letter sent last week and have since demanded to be received by the Head of State.
Pending a response, the Fisheries Committee
“calls on all professional representatives to suspend their participation in environmental management bodies”.
A gesture of discontent but also a sign of deep distress, when for five years,
"fishermen have been at the initiative of scientific and technical programs to determine avoidance solutions
(repellent sonars, special nets), to reconcile activities fishing and protection of dolphins" and that they have
"already limited the periods and fishing areas"
to
"take care of the resource"
, according to the chairman of the committee, Olivier Le Nézet.
Hervé Berville renewed the commitment of the French State to fight against the European plan on the prohibition of bottom trawls and said his will to "find the way
with all the actors to continue to deploy an action plan against incidental captures of cetaceans”
.
He also undertook to facilitate the
"administrative daily life of fishermen".
Will that be enough?
“We want to avoid any movement of violence.
And that is why we warn that we must act now.
We now want answers and a clear timetable
,” Olivier Le Nézet told AFP.