Immersion with Loïc Barbedette, professional fisherman in Nice for four years -

20 Minutes

  • Every day, before sunrise, Loïc Barbedette sets off on his boat to cast and retrieve his fishing nets.

  • He returns around 10:30 a.m. to sell the fish in the port until 12:30 p.m.

  • "I live unique moments".

    At no time does he regret his previous life.

It is 6:45 a.m. when Loïc Barbedette, 36, leaves the moorings of the port of Nice.

This former work supervisor in the yards was reconverted in 2017. “A melancholy fisherman spoke to my partner saying that it was complicated to hire young sailors.

I have always loved the sea, I told myself that it was the occasion even though I had never touched a net in my life, ”he recalls.

At first, his relatives didn't take him too seriously.

“Now I think they're proud,” smiles the fisherman.

He never left Nice.

Further, he went to Corsica.

Besides, that's where he learned everything.

“When I embarked on this project, with the months of training to be a sailor and then the months of navigation to graduate, I saw that it was complicated to get hired by fishermen.

Except maybe in Normandy.

But it was on the Isle of Beauty that I was given my chance, in the lobster capital.

In three months, I won ten years of experience ”.

Loïc Barbedette, professional fisherman in Nice - E. Martin / ANP / 20 Minutes

"It's a profession of passion"

Despite his intense apprenticeship, Loïc Barbedette struggles to obtain all the qualifications to obtain the captain's diploma 200 and decides to buy a fishing boat anyway and to pass the certificate of aptitude for command in small-scale fishing.

“There are restrictions but that doesn't concern me.

Of course, I go less far because I don't move as quickly as my colleagues [4 knots, that is to say 7 km / h against 20, therefore 37 km / h], but for what I do, that's more than enough for me, ”comments the fisherman.

Every day, he throws and collects his nets (120 m long and which can go up to 20 m deep depending on the seabed) off the promenade des Anglais to the beach of the reserve in Nice.

“Sometimes I don't collect any fish.

On a good day, I'm going to have twenty.

It is a profession of passion, patience and resourcefulness.

I am a fisherman but also a seamstress to sew the nets.

I do handling.

I am a marine carpenter, mechanic and merchant, salesman ”.

Since the restrictions linked to the health crisis, he sells his fish "off the boat" from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm directly to individuals.

“I used to struggle all over town to sell what I had.

Now I don't do more than 48 hours with my harvest.

I think people like having fresh air and knowing where it comes from.

We are on a real short circuit.

We try to promote the product in this way.

For my part, I never get bored, I love the contact and I learn lots of recipes from clients ”.

"I'm lucky, I'm free"

Despite these exchanges at the quayside, being a professional fisherman is a solitary profession.

A constraint for some, "a kiffe" for the Niçois.

“I'm not in an office, I don't have the stress of traffic jams, I am free.

You just have to look around me.

What I see, what I experience, is incredible.

We have the right to unique moments that only fishermen can understand.

It happened to me many times to have dolphins around my boat.

You may be disgusted with human relationships, but never with fish and the other creatures that inhabit the sea, ”he jokes.

He turns his work into a game. By picking up a net, a fish that he had never caught appears.

A broad smile emerges on his face lit by the first rays of the sun.

“When you pull up the net, you never know what you're going to fall on, there's a bit of luck.

In what we believe to be routine, it is not.

There is a side of adventure and permanent discovery.

By force, I know them well the fish, my goal is to have them all at least once.

In short, I love everything about my job.

"

Without having relatives in the field, he learned by observing the retirees who have now made way for him.

In Nice, only five professional fishermen still operate.

But Loïc Barbedette is confident in the future: “I am sure that young people will come back to these essential practices.

It's the simplest job in the world: you get up, you go fishing and you come back, ”he concludes.

It is true that in the end, it is not the sea to drink ...

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