They said they were ready for confrontation.

It is finally in the calm that 300 fishing professionals and members of environmental associations demonstrated this Monday morning in front of the Côtes-d'Armor prefecture, in Saint-Brieuc, to protest against an offshore wind farm project whose work was to start the same day.

"No to the death of artisanal fishing", "No to wind turbines which destroy the sea", could be read on the posters hung on the railings.

Empty scallops, which make the bay of Saint-Brieuc so rich and which fishermen fear to see threatened by the construction of the park, were also dumped.

The fishermen are calling for the cancellation of this offshore wind farm project, which is scheduled to come into service at the end of 2023. It is being built by the company Ailes Marines, a subsidiary of the Spanish group Iberdrola.

"We must succeed in preventing these parks from invading our coasts," declared the president of the local fisheries committee, Alain Coudray, accusing the Minister of Ecological Transition, Barbara Pompili, of wanting to "eliminate fishing" .

According to Katherine Poujol, president of the Gardez les Caps association, the 62 wind turbines that are to be installed 16 km from the coast will spill aluminum into the sea every day and “the entire food chain will be contaminated”.

State ships deployed to ensure safety at sea

Before the demonstration in front of the prefecture, the fishermen had planned to go early in the morning to meet the ships of the Ailes Marines shipyard, which must start drilling.

But these ships delayed their entry into action, thus dodging confrontation.

The maritime prefect of the Atlantic also assured that he planned to deploy several state ships (maritime gendarmerie, national navy and customs) "to support the start of work on the wind farm in the bay of Saint-Brieuc".

"The objective is above all to guarantee the safety of navigation, people, goods and the environment", he said in a press release, while a restricted area at sea has been established "for the entire duration of the work ”.

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A Molotov cocktail launched on the construction site of a disputed wind farm in Brittany

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