France’s national fishing industry body has reacted furiously to the European Commission’s plans for demersal gears in MPAs, accusing it of proposing measures that will wreck whole sections of the Common Fisheries Policy, such as the management plan for the Mediterranean.
‘This action plan undermines not only the CFP management plans but also all the work carried out for more than ten years with scientists and the industry in risk analyses for the adoption of management measures in the MPAs,’ said Olivier Le Nézet, president of CNPMEM, the national fisheries committee.
He stated that France will pay a high price for the Commission’s plans, and under these proposals, a third of the French fleet will be gone by 2030
CNPMEM estimates that the Commission’s proposals will leave 4350 fishermen on board the 1200 vessels currently fishing with these methods within MPAs unemployed.
Demersal gears produce around half of French landings, around 204,000 tonnes with a value of approximately €490,000,000.
‘This attitude is irresponsible. Excluding bottom gear from all MPAs means killing the European and French fishing industry without any consideration of the real impacts. All our artisanal and offshore fleets, on all seaboards, are affected. From Dunkirk to Sète, from Marseille to Bastia,’ he said, adding that this opens wide the door for even more imports of seafood from third countries such as a China, Russia and Norway.
‘We do not play Russian roulette with the future of a sector. I now look forward to a strong response from the French government and the European Parliament to remind the Commission of its commitment to maintain a balance between food production and environmental protection, between environmental objectives and socio-economic objectives,’ Olivier Le Nézet said.
‘This plan is disproportionate, unwarranted and not based on the best science.’
