“We are going to hit the bottom”, warn fishermen from Lorient

The month-long ban on net fishing in the Bay of Biscay begins on Monday. Lorient fishermen, who hoped to obtain an exemption, made numerous investments in new equipment.

More than 500 fishing vessels will remain at the dock from Monday January 22 until February 20. The ban on fishing with nets in the Bay of Biscay, enacted by the Council of State, for boats over eight meters, comes into force. The goal: to protect populations of dolphins, victims of accidental capture. A decision difficult to accept for Lorient fishermen, since the government had promised them exemptions.

According to the International Center for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ciem), around 9,000 dolphins die each year on the French Atlantic coasts due to these captures, caught in fishermen’s nets. On the Quai du Quelle pas, in the port of Lorient, m trump, a blue and white boat ten meters long, is moored. His nets are put away. For a month, Julian and his crew can no longer go to sea: “Now we’re going to hit rock bottom, it’s getting complicated.”

Cameras and repellents to scare away dolphins

However, the young boss had equipped himself to benefit from the exemptions: “We put cameras and repellents on the hulls to scare the dolphins away. Just after installing everything, they came back and told us to stop the boats. It was all for nothing. It was subsidized but we still didn’t have the money of course.”

Cold shower also for Nicolas at the head of the Drakar. Until now he had been fishing for octopus. He wanted to adapt his boat to diversify: “The cameras were paid for and I was told, five days before putting everything on board, that I no longer have the right. I have 6,000 euros of work in progress, all the same!”