Lille (AFP)
The official ban on electric fishing in French waters is a "first step" before the European ban that will take effect in 2021, estimated Friday the AFP regional fisheries committee Hauts-de-Seine. La France.
"The first step is the ban in French waters, the second is the complete ban in Europe in 2021 and the third is that the fish stock does not take too long to regenerate", said Stéphane Pinto, vice-chair of the committee.
The European regulation of 25 July 2019 which "puts an end, as from 1 July 2021, to the derogation currently in force allowing the use of the electric trawl in the waters of the North Sea", entered into force "in the waters under French sovereignty "Wednesday, according to a statement from the Ministry of Agriculture.
This regulation allows the Member States to decide the immediate prohibition of electric fishing in waters under their sovereignty, up to 12 nautical miles from the coast (22.2 km off the coast of France).
"So 2021 is expected for the total ban", but "it's still a big win," said Pinto. "What we hope now is that the English and Belgians do the same thing, to keep the electric fishing off our shores, and that the stock regenerates quickly enough, to allow the fishermen of Hauts-de-France to live decently from their job, "insisted the fisherman.
But "if it takes so much time for the stock to regenerate that it has been destroyed by electric fishing, that is to say, ten years, it still brings us to dark years," he said. he regretted, estimating that a first assessment could be drawn up in "two to three years".
Electric fishing consists of sending electrical impulses into the sediment from a trawl to catch fish living at the bottom of the sea. It has been banned in Europe since 1998, but the European Commission has allowed its practice since 2006 under an exceptional derogatory regime.
Judged devastating for wildlife and the seabed, it is little used in France unlike the Netherlands who are the main supporters in Europe.
© 2019 AFP