Not a boat at sea, not a fish sold, no fish trade, no processing. For the first time, the National Fisheries Committee calls for dead days in French ports to demand government responses to a series of “attacks” weakening the sector, in a climate of tensions not seen since the Brexit crisis. The unprecedented “dead port” operation is scheduled for Thursday 30 and Friday 31 March: each local committee choosing the day or days that suit them. In Boulogne-sur-Mer, the main French port, the mobilization started on Sunday evening with the blocking of the port, before, on Tuesday, with the closing of the auction.

For several days, anger has been mounting: strong demonstrations in Rennes or Lorient, blockades in Boulogne, awareness-raising operations, with distribution of fish in Capbreton (New-Aquitaine)… Professionals denounce “unsuitable European regulations”, in particular the recent ban bottom fishing in marine protected areas by 2030, the price of diesel, the closure of certain fishing areas in the Atlantic in order to preserve the dolphins whose strandings have multiplied in the Bay of Biscay and, ultimately , the “disengagement” of the state.

Reduction of the French fleet

“The accumulation of standards, threats, disputes calls into question the very foundation of our profession by making us feel guilty for exercising our professions: the only objective is however to feed the French and the Europeans”, affirms the committee. The observation is bitter, while the French fleet has shrunk by more than a quarter in twenty years and national fishing represents only 25% of the fish sold on the stalls.

After the health crisis and Brexit, which resulted in the scrapping of 90 ships, professionals consider the very existence of the sector “compromised by incessant harassment and piecemeal support without support towards a vision future”.

They expressed this anger to President Emmanuel Macron, in an open letter sent last week, demanding “a break in this avalanche of bad blows”, 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 anger 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 keep cetaceans away] , to reconcile fishing activities and dolphin protection (…)”, that they have “already limited fishing periods and areas” to “take care of the resource”, according to the chairman of the committee, Olivier Le Nezet. The committee specifies that the “dead port” days organized on Thursday and Friday are the result of a “unitary action”, coordinated between fishermen, auctions and wholesalers: “It is not a question of weakening ourselves. Others think about it for us. »

In an attempt to defuse the crisis, the Secretary of State for the Sea Hervé Berville invited the members of the national committee to a meeting by videoconference on Tuesday. In a statement to Agence France-Presse, he said on Tuesday “in solidarity with the spirit of the movement” and promised to “strengthen the collective work” undertaken, in particular against certain European regulations.