Brexit: French fishermen no longer have access to Jersey waters

Fishing has been one of the big issues of Brexit friction.

Here, a view of the fishing port of Roscoff, in Finistère (Photo Illustration).

© RFI / Alexis Bedu

Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

Norman and Breton fishermen will no longer be able to fish in Jersey's territorial waters.

In theory, they had a right of access until May 1 as part of the post-Brexit transition, but according to the Normandy Regional Committee for Fisheries and Marine Breeding, only 57 vessels out of 340 holders of the license from the Granville bay were accepted on Friday January 15 by the Channel Island.

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French boats must now prove that they have fished 10 days per year on average for the past three years in Jersey waters.

In the meantime, the precious permits, fishermen will experience inconvenience on both shores, believes Dimitri Rogoff, president of the Regional Committee for Fisheries and Marine Farms in Normandy.

►Also read: Brexit: British fishermen angry at the chaos of the new regulations

We have two problems,

” he said.

 It is an area where there are a lot of crabbers, so they have their traps that are in the water.

So we are already going to negotiate a derogation so that the French can go and get their equipment.

The whelk fleet is in biological shutdown.

But we have all the crabbers, we also have trawlers, boats with scallops, fish.

And they can no longer work in the water, so there is a form of shortfall.

"

"A sector that is complicated

"

The president of the Normandy Regional Fisheries and Marine Farming Committee observes:

It's a sector that is complicated to go fishing since the limit between France and Jersey is ready.

The bulk of the flotilla are small boats, boats that work within a 10 mile radius, about twenty kilometers around their home port or their point of departure.

So they can't go anywhere else.

Then when we work in the lockers, we are not going to throw our lockers anywhere

”.

Fishermen from Jersey come to land fish in France and deliver it to the French auctions. 

"

 These

are their outlets,

"

notes Dimitri Rogoff, of the Normandy regional fisheries and marine farming committee.

It is quite obvious that while all this is not resolved.

There is no question that in addition, they come to take advantage of our market, so it will also cause disorder at home

, ”he says.

Fishing license

Aurélie Leroy, director of the Channel Islands office, justifies this decision by the fact that " 

the transition period that the Jersey government had put in place for the continuity of access to water was not recognized by the Commission. European

 ”.

This transition period

not

being "in 

conformity

 " with the agreements of the European Union with the United Kingdom

on Brexit

, " 

Jersey can not help but put in place now the fishing licenses

 ", he said. she clarified.

Under Brexit fishing agreements, French fishermen must now prove that they have fished 10 days per year on average for the past three years in Jersey waters.

A transition period had been put in place to give French fishermen time, she explains.

Because while boats equipped with the equivalent of GPS can easily prove that they have been in the waters, it takes longer for small boats that do not have one.

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  • France

  • Brexit

  • United Kingdom

  • Agriculture and Fishing

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