The National Fisheries Committee calls for two dead days in French ports for Thursday and Friday to demand responses from the Government to a series of “attacks” that weaken the sector, in a climate of tensions never seen since the Brexit crisis.
“The cup is full and we need to give all the players in our sector a future because today the horizon is dark,” said the National Committee for Maritime Fishing and Marine Farming (CNPMEM), in a press release published on Tuesday.
For several days, anger has grown among the fishermen: muscular demonstrations in Rennes or Lorient, blockade of the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, the main French port.
Professionals denounce “inadequate European regulations”, in particular the recent ban on bottom fishing in marine protected areas by 2030, the price of diesel, the closure of certain fishing areas in the Atlantic to preserve dolphins whose strandings have multiplied in the Bay of Biscay and, ultimately, the “disconnection” of the State.
Accumulation of standards
“The accumulation of standards, threats, disputes questions the very foundation of our profession by making us feel guilty for practicing our professions: the only objective is, however, to feed the French and the Europeans,” the committee states.
After the health crisis and Brexit, which resulted in the scrapping of 90 ships, professionals consider that the very existence of the sector is “compromised by incessant harassment and fragmentary support without support for a vision of the future.”
They expressed this anger to President Emmanuel Macron, in an open letter sent last week, demanding “a stop in this avalanche of bad blows”, and since then they have demanded to be received by the Head of State.
Pending a response, “the CNPMEM calls on all professional representatives to suspend their participation in environmental management bodies.”
The committee specifies that the days of “dead port” organized on Thursday and Friday are the result of a “unitary action”, coordinated between fishermen, fish markets and wholesalers: “It is not a matter of weakening ourselves. The others think about it for us.” .
Source: BFM TV
