This may sound like an April Fool’s story – but we’d like to assure you that it isn’t. French anti-fishing NGO Bloom’s ‘red list’ of ‘destructive’ fishing vessels, rushed out ahead of the SOS Océan conference held in Paris, has French fishermen in particular up in arms.
Bloom claims that the list of trawlers is a definitive listing of fishing vessels that have operated inside Marine Protected Areas – although it appears to indicriminately throw everything from under-10-metre coastal boats to some of the world’s largest pelagic vessels into the same category.
The list originally contained more than 4500 vessel names, but is now down to just over 4000 – presumably whittled down in response to the furious reception it has received from the industry.
Among those on the Bloom list are vessels that have never fished with trawl gear, others that no longer exist and some – such as one Spanish naval vessel – that clearly are not engaged in fishing in any way.
The Hauts-de-France Fisheries Committee, representing French fishermen in the eastern Channel area, is just one French industry body of many that have been quick to slam Bloom’s amateurish tactics.
‘Bloom has been presenting itself for years as a defender of small-scale coastal fishing. This NGO is now attacking all fleet sectors, thus revealing its true objective – to destabilise French fishing. But who benefits from the crime?’ asked a representative of the Hauts-de-France Fisheries Committee.
‘Among some 4500 listed vessels, there are around forty from Hauts-de-France. Faced with this unjustified attack, all the elected representatives of the Hauts-de-France Committee are mobilising to defend our fishermen and denounce this defamatory list, which is an attack on our honour and the future of our sector.’
