At the agricultural show, sea products are present, thanks in particular to the Concours Général Agricole, in the various stands in the coastal regions. Meeting with the Lehuche, fishermen from father to son to the Turballe.
Outside, it is raining ropes and Roman Lehuche repairs nets on the soggy deck of the Tangaroa, a newly launched trawler, 18 years old in his yellow wax coat, he started fishing this summer, as soon as the fishing school finished, aboard his father's boat.
Fishing is almost a genetic inheritance: everyone on the docks knows "Tony Lehuche" . A kid from the Turballe became a fisherman-boss, who remembers his childhood running on the harbour, "at a time when there was no, then" video games ". By dint of watching the boats come and go in the harbour, he falls in turn, and begins to fish at 15 and a half. Becomes a few years after captain, thanks to a shipowner who helps him to invest in his first ship, the Troika.
Today, Anthony Lehuche owns two large pelagic trawlers and takes with him his two sons, 18 and 22 years old. "I did not force them, they chose their path," says Anthony. "It's a hard job, a profession of concessions, which requires sacrifices with respect to schedules, his wife, his family. Today, young people may be a little less ready to make these sacrifices than before. Going away at sea, for a long time, disconnecting totally, it's not easy for them, who grew up with their phone and social networks. "
Sailors from father to son
But the young recruits are still there, out of passion. When we ask Roman if he fears hard times at sea, he shrugs: "bein so inevitably, I was a little scared, but when we like that ... we like it. I chose, I did what fishing. "
"Fishing is cyclical. Anthony Lehuche
"There are very good seasons, catastrophic ... but the fish, on average, it is there ... It's been more than thirty years that I fish, 30 years that I hear that there are more fish ... However, there are always fish ! "
With his children aboard, Anthony does not protest against the quotas : " We must respect the maximum sustainable yield, the regulations are there for the fishing to continue. it can last as long as possible for my children " .
A job of the future?
He is concerned, however, external factors that come tighten the conditions of the trade: " As patron fisherman, there is concern about the price of oil , and is subject to the fish. There are things We do not control, like Brexit, and if there is a hard Brexit, there will surely be a postponement of the Channel ships in the Atlantic, including the Turbula, and that may cause problems ! "
Anyway, Anthony is not ready to leave the ship . "Me, I do that, because I only knew that finally, I'm not sure I can do anything else ..." And to want? No more, surely. "There is something very special among fishermen, they have this human leg, they are hardened men, but good guys anyway. The collective work of the crew, that's what I liked, and I still like it ".