In order to fight against overfishing, the Council of European Ministers has met since Sunday in Brussels to discuss a possible restriction of fishing days for trawlers in the Mediterranean.
The ports of Sète, Port-la-Nouvelle, Agde and Le Grau du Roi have been symbolically blocked by the fishermen who do not want to talk about a further reduction in their quotas.
Fishermen estimate the rate of return of a trawler at 209 fishing days.
Brussels plans to reduce the days of sea trips from 183 to 167
The fishermen of Grau du Roi, Agde, Sète and Port-la-Nouvelle mobilized on Saturday to block, more or less spectacularly, their various home ports. The blockage was total for an hour at Grau du Roi in the Gard, It was longer but more partial at Sète.
At the heart of their demand, the management plan envisaged by the European Union and presented to the Council of Ministers this Sunday in Brussels.
In particular, it provides for a further reduction in fishing quotas.
Trawlers could only go out 167 days a year in 2022, compared to 183 currently.
In 2020, it was 201 days.
“According to our studies, the rate of return of a trawler was 177 days at sea. But these figures are now obsolete.
With the increase in diesel, this rate rises to 209 days, says Bernard Pérez, president of the Occitanie regional fisheries committee.
We cannot accept a further drop in fishing days.
We are calling for the status quo.
We have the support of other Mediterranean countries, Spain and Italy ”
" The situation is serious "
"The trawler fleet in Occitania is floundering dangerously with the average breakeven point for boats," recalls Carole Delga, president of the Occitania region, who is trying to change the position of the ministers. " The situation is serious. Beyond all the projects that we can implement to support the industry, it is really their survival that is at stake. (…) The sustainability of more than 2,000 jobs is at stake, including 1,300 direct jobs on our coast. It is also about safeguarding the production chain to feed the inhabitants of Occitania. "
By reducing fishing days, Europe intends to protect two particularly endangered species: red mullet and hake.
In our columns, last March, Stephan Beaucher, delegate of the NGO MedReAct in France, warned about the fate of hake which “holds the sad record of being the most overfished species in the Mediterranean.
The catches are fifteen times higher than they should be under sustainable exploitation in the Gulf of Lions.
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"If we are not heard, we are ready to harden the movement"
While in the Gulf of Lion, 6,000 km2 of restricted areas have been created to cope with overexploitation, the industry considers that it has made enough concessions. “We have already reduced the juvenile catches of these species by 55%. We must now redo studies, but not cut down an entire industry as a matter of principle ”, explains to France Televisions, Bertrand Wendling, general manager of the SaThoAn cooperative (Sardine, Tuna, anchovy), in Sète.
The fishermen, if they are not heard, threaten to block the main ports of Languedoc and Roussillon with the approach of the holidays and to harden the movement in January 2022. “It is a cry of alarm from all the profession.
Saturday was one way of hearing our voices.
But if we are not heard, we are ready to harden the movement, ”warns Bernard Pérez.
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