REPORTING. In Finistère, small fishermen want to “restore a good image” of their profession after a month of forced cessation

He is “happy like a kid” to be able to go fishing again. For weeks, Matthieu Claquin has been walking in circles on the quays of Audierne, wearing out his blue boots on the asphalt of the port. The Finistère fisherman takes care of his boat, replaces his nets or dismantles his hydraulic pipes. All this, for lack of tracking the fish off the Pointe du Raz, near the island of Sein, its “passion”her “life”. “When I pull up my nets to discover the catch of the day, I am as excited as a flea”describes this 26-year-old son and grandson of sailors, six of whom are already in command of the Noz Dei II.

On January 22, everything stopped. The skipper and his two sailors moored the 11-meter gillnetter for a forced one-month rest. Same fate for nearly 450 other fishing vessels, from the tip of Brittany to the Spanish coast. This was decided by the Council of State, contacted by four environmental defense associations, to reduce the mortality of dolphins victims of accidental capture in the Bay of Biscay.

This ban, imposed until February 20 inclusive on boats deemed to be most at risk, has caused incomprehension among Audierne fishermen. “We had been really involved for three years to avoid reaching such an end”laments Matthieu Claquin. “Every year, I catch four or five dolphins, maximum. It’s not much, but it’s never fun and, what’s more, it tears the nets.” To avoid these captures, fishermen themselves tested anti-cetacean tags and reflectors on the nets, before switching to acoustic repellents under the hull. “All this to be punished.”

A port under perfusion

This Wednesday, February 21 marks the end of a month of abstinence, from which the port of Audierne staggers out. Deprived of its gillnetters, who catch 70% of the local catch, the Cape Sizun fish market has slowed down. “Instead of having five weekly sales, we only organized two or three per week”reports its director, François Priol.

“Our turnover will inevitably suffer.”

François Priol, director of the Audierne fish auction

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The fish merchants of Viviers d’Audierne, intermediaries between the auction and wholesalers, hypermarkets and restaurateurs, have given up hiring staff for the winter, which is usually rich in pollack. In the market, this noble fish, a local treasure, has become a rare commodity, which sells for nearly 40 euros per kg by the cut, double the normal. “Customers see the price and turn around”notes Marc Moullec, the fishmonger.

Once the hangover has passed, however, the fishing ban should have a limited impact. The government promised, from January, compensation of up to 85% of monthly turnover for affected fishermen and “specific aid” for the rest of the sector. The shock will remain above all symbolic, believes Matthieu Claquin. “We want to fish, not look like we’re on welfare.”

For the sailor, the worst may be yet to come. The Council of State has already approved the principle of two new one-month shutdowns in the Bay of Biscay, at the beginning of 2025 and the beginning of 2026. Insufficient in the eyes of environmental NGOs. They demanded up to four months of respite for cetaceans, which perish by the thousands each year at sea and sometimes wash up on the coasts. “Scientific advice shows that we will have to go further to ensure a viable future for these protected species”they plead. “Out of the question”replies Matthieu Claquin. “We might as well set fire to our ships right away and sink them.”

Raised against their union

To voice their concerns, dozens of Breton fishermen joined the farmers’ movement on January 25 in Rennes. “There were around thirty of us from Audierne”says Benoît Normant, 33 years old, boss of the filleter The Aurora Borealis.

The fishermen of Cape Sizun especially blame their representative organizations, the National Fisheries Committee and its branch in Finistère, which are as influential as the FNSEA in the agricultural sector, or even more so, in the absence of a competing union. “The system is infiltrated by representatives of industrial fishing, who we discover want to import fish from Oman and operate the largest trawler in the world in Saint-Malo”explains Sébastien Biolchini, one of the organizers of the trip to Rennes.

“Our efforts do not go at all in the direction of small artisanal fishermen.”

Sébastien Biolchini, gillnetter in Audierne

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Audierne sailors practice coastal fishing, often for the day, unlike many trawlers, which spend several days or weeks offshore. “As soon as there is a diesel crisis, the committees call for mobilization to save these fuel-hungry boats”observes Sébastien Biolchini. “On the other hand, when it comes to supporting the gillnetters, nothing. We were even called ‘weepers’ by our departmental representatives.”

The National Fisheries Committee claims to have acted “tirelessly” to defend the affected fishermen and praises the compensation measures “obtained” to the executive. The body promises to make this file “an ultimate priority” and to fight before the Council of State to cancel the bans planned for 2025 and 2026, against NGOs qualified as “gravediggers of small-scale fishing and artisanal fishing”.

Stocks that continue to fall

Ronan Thomas did not go to parade in Rennes. No more than most of the 35 long-liners from Cape Sizun, which represent the other type of boats in the area, spared by the ban. Alone with his fishing rod, the boss of theAltaïr, a small 8.5 meter boat, had a few outings, but the heart wasn’t really in it. Anyway, “winter is a quiet season for us”he slips.

In December, a European agreement intended to preserve fish stocks saw a drastic reduction in authorized catches of pollack for 2024 and 2025. At the Audierne auction, fishermen will have to halve their contributions, which will weaken the fish market. balance of a port that has been in good health up until now. “Young people who have just started find themselves with almost nothing”worries the line fisherman Ronan Thomas, at the age of 54. “Some may want to sell their boat. But, without place quotas, their gear is no longer worth much. It’s a double penalty. And it’s difficult to switch to other species, with the sea bass resource which also keeps falling.”

“If we don’t have an octopus to save us like last year, it will be a disaster.”

Ronan Thomas, lineman in Audierne

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Resigned, he recounts the numerous alerts issued by fishermen in recent years to manage pollack. “We saw the stocks collapse. We proposed imposing a biological rest period or increasing the minimum catch size, in vain”he laments.

A battle of opinion to be won

Hand in hand, gillnetters and rowers from Audierne now want to make themselves heard and show that another path is possible. This has become the fight of Thomas Le Gall, founding president of the Pêche Avenir Cap Sizun association, launched in March 2023. “We want to revive democracy in ports, in the face of very vertical and centralized fishing governance”explains this 45-year-old lineman, a former maritime lawyer.

One of the hottest topics on the table is dialogue with environmental defense associations. In Rennes, sailors expressed their resentment towards Sea Shepherd, accused of wanting “totally ban fishing” and to have “harassed” some of them in the past while trying to film accidental captures of dolphins. But “the song are winning the battle of opinion”, observes Thomas Le Gall, blue cap screwed on his head. He says he is thinking about “a framework for a peaceful debate with some of them”while recognizing a “crisp” on the Haven. “The fight of these associations represents an existential risk for our activities and therefore anxiety for our guys.”

Can common ground be found with NGOs? Cape Sizun fishermen say they defend a fishing model “virtuous”, “low consumption of diesel”banking on “the quality” fish rather than quantity, while remaining “very well valued” in cry. They saw in a recent scientific report initiated by the Bloom association a validation of the benefits of their coastal practices, both environmentally and socially, compared to offshore fishing, which is much more subsidized. One of their projects is now to include more of themselves on the plates of schools and nursing homes in Cape Sizun, with a food education component.

When it’s time to return to sea, Matthieu Claquin feels invested with a mission. The young filleter wants to reconnect the fishermen and the citizens, little aware that their fish is rarely French. “I dream that they stop buying shit without heads or scales from who knows where in the supermarket”, he blurted. He intends to share his sea trips on Facebook and sell some of his fish himself in the port. “I heard people say that it was very good that the sailors were stopped for a month, that hurt me. We want to give back a good image of the fishermen”, he says. No choice, according to him, to live for a long time from his passion.