(Translated from the original)
"Fishermen and Boulogne Etaploise consider unacceptable the proposals (see below) of the European Commissioner for Fisheries, the Greek Damanaki. For the latter, fish stocks are overexploited because of "overcapacity of the fleet" in the clear there are too many boats chasing too few fish.
The annual contribution of artisanal fisheries currently Boulogne is about 35000t. Fewer boats will also mean a drop in tonnage landed and affect the entire sector and processing companies in the tidal zone Capécure who need a fresh fish sold in auction. The economic and social reform in Brussels seems to have overlooked."
Big difference tomorrow, with this system, "quotas belong to the boat," says Marc Perrault, head of St. Catherine Laboure, a trawler of 24.50 m. The commission tries to reassure by saying that these quotas "would not be between boats of the same country and even between vessels of similar size." Pierre-Georges Dachicourt is "dressing to the final liberalization while. We know that situations between fishermen of the same port are not the same. Those who do better have the money to buy the quotas of the most fragile.
But what will become of them? Everyone can not be pizzaïolo (sic) "The resale of quotas could lead to speculation (sale to the highest bidder) and a takeover by industrial fisheries, which are themselves responsible for the exploitation of the sea with more quota concentrated in the same hands, this phenomenon will only increase and it will lead ultimately to the opposite effect to that intended, that is to say less pressure on the resource.To reduce their number, Damanaki calls with the Committee on Fisheries, which was in the air for a few months time, the introduction of transferable fishing rights or fishing concessions exchanged between boats. A fisherman who wants to stop because it is close to retirement or because its activity is no longer economically viable could transfer all of its right to fish. "We do get large-scale capitalism and over time, we will remove small-scale fisheries for the benefit of owners or large pension funds who buy fishing rights, denounces Pierre-Georges Dachicourt, Berckois and Chairman of National Fisheries. There will be financial abuse detrimental to the profession.
All the Icelandic fishing owned by U.S. pension funds and it did not improve its situation, far from it. "Currently, quotas are managed by producer organizations as cooperative maritime Etaploise (CME) at Etaples or Boulogne From North.
Article courtesy of La Voix du Nord.