A fortnight before the opening of scallop fishing, confidence can be seen in the eyes of Norman fishermen. Impatience too. That of starting a season that is always profitable for trade. Because the resource is present in abundance off our coasts.
10 years ago, when we reached 10,000 tonnes for the season, it was extraordinary. There, we have nearly 110,000 tons of biomass, it’s unheard of! Jérôme Vicquelin, co-owner of the Alliance
It is in fact an important work of preservation of these bivalve molluscs which bears its fruits today. The establishment of fallow areas, fishing time reduced to a maximum of 1h30 per day, limits on the size of the shell, a set of efforts provided by the sector to guarantee the good management and sustainability of the resource. The assurance of quality and quantity fishing for at least four to five years.
Local fisheries impacted by global crises
But if the Saint-Jacques season is long awaited, especially on the side of Port-en-Bessin, is that the rest of the year was not easy to manage, despite the good fishing. The crises follow one another for the sailors. For three years in a row they have had to come to terms with hazards beyond their control. After the Covid-19the Brexit, it’s the Russian-Ukrainian conflict which has had a strong impact on fishermen, hit hard by the galloping rise in fuel prices.
“Help is good but even with 20 cents of help, we can’t find it, deplores Pierre Marie, owner of Pierre d’Ambre. Diesel is at 1 euro, less 20 cents, we fall back to 80 cents, a far cry from two years ago. During the first confinement, the liter was 30 cents. Obviously, the blow is difficult for the profession to take, especially since fuel is the main cost of shipowners. In general, this represents about 40% of the fishermen’s turnover. “Today, it rises to 50 or 60% of our income. It completely pisses us off. We bring back to port a ton a day, so if you fish less than 1000 euros a day, you are negative, you go out to sea for nothing”is sorry Matthews Joiningother shipowner wore.
The calm of Saint-Jacques before a new storm?
A few hundred meters further on, on the same quay, Gregory Gerard shares a sandwich with his sailors. A bulotier, he no longer goes to sea to collect his favorite shellfish and impatiently awaits the shellfish season. “We put everything away, with the heat wave, the water is too hot and the whelks have buried themselves in the sand. It’s catastrophic ! While the persistent high temperatures of the summer period have had negative consequences for certain species, they are conducive to the proliferation of scallops, because the plankton on which they feed has developed in quantity this summer.
The autumn period is therefore eagerly awaited. It will certainly mark a salutary moment for Norman fishermen, both for their daily work and for their wallets. A moment of mental rest too, before plunging back into the crises and conflicts that darken the future. “The climate, wind turbines at sea, cohabitation with foreigners, industrial fishing, factory ships, all of this can weaken us, we don’t know what our future will be like.”concludes Jérôme Vicquelin.