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Home straight in negotiations with the UK over sinners. The standoff has lasted for almost a year. Some French professionals are still waiting for their fishing licenses.
At 2 p.m., the captain of the Sirocco and his crew returned to the port of Saint-Malo, in Ille-et-Vilaine. The 35-year-old vessel is less and less equipped for modern fishing. “You have to do a lot of maneuvers for nothing, you break your back”, underlines Victor Massu, the captain. The shipowner who owns the fleet would like to grant the wishes of his sailors. “Since January, we still have not had an answer to know if we have the authorization or not to replace the ship or not”, explains Loïc Escoffier.
The United Kingdom refuses to grant licenses during boat renewals, for fear of overfishing of these more modern vessels in Jersey waters. For France, the risk is the decrease in the number of Breton and Norman sailors in this area. Each year between 3,000 and 4,000 tonnes of spiders are caught by the Saint-Malo crews to garnish French, Spanish and Moroccan tables. More than half of their catches are taken off Jersey.