ANNONCER
Threatened action by French fishermen began early this morning as Calais and other ports have been blockaded. Ferry and freight services have been suspended, with the busy port of Calais seriously affected, while Dutch seine netters in Boulogne due to weather have been unable to leave.
French seafood group Agromousquetaires, its fishing subsidiary Scapêche and parent company, the Intermarché supermarket chain, are calling for an end to electric fishing and have pledged not to sell any fish caught using this method in its more than 1800 retail outlets.
The second of a series of three trawlers for owners in Brittany was launched this week in Douarnenez. Built for Loctudy fisherman Stéphane Le Bec, Kronos is the sister vessel to Les Caraïbes II, which was delivered to Julien Le Brun in May, and a third trawler in the series is under construction.
Brittany company Armement à la pêche artisanale de Keroman (APAK), based in Lorient is putting substantial investment into fishing, with new vessels and plans for a new processing plant in the port area.
Le Guilvinec fishing company Armement Bigouden has taken delivery of a new trawler, designed by Coprexma and built at the Chantiers Gléhen yard in Douarnanez. The new trawler was formally christened on Saturday in Le Guilvinec.
Built by the Socarenam yard at Saint-Mâlo to fish in the Bay of St-Brieuc, a new trawler for the Eouzan-Travadon fishing company has been handed over to its owners at the end of last week.
An initiative to bring fish from Morocco to the French port of Lorient was announced at the Itech’Mer exhibition, currently taking place in Lorient. The first trial shipments of groundfish species from Safi in Morocco have been sent and sold on Lorient’s auction. Only the unusually large sizes of the Moroccan fish indicated that it was anything out of the ordinary.
A meeting is due to be held on Friday this week at the Garopole in Abbeville, where French fishermen hope that this latest development will not be allowed to go through.
With the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) due to hold its annual meeting from 14 to 22 November, its scientific committee has just delivered its latest assessment on the status of the stocks of tunas in the Atlantic.
The new president of the Réunion Regional Committee for Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture, Bertrand Baillif, argued strongly in favour of measures to benefit all of the island’s fishermen prior to his election, including a ‘Toothfish for all’ slogan.