France Pélagique takes on a documentary filmmaker for the herring season in the Channel.

 

The Prins Bernard has left Ijmuiden for the Channel fishing grounds.

On the occasion of the herring season in the Eastern Channel, the French pelagic shipping line is launching an unprecedented communication operation.

On Monday November 14, photographer and sociologist Thomas Troadec from the Catalpa agency set off for the Netherlands with the crew of the Prins Bernhard , an 88-metre pelagic trawler from the French subsidiary of the Dutch group Cornelis Vrolijk. The communication agency Catalpa has worked in particular on campaigns for the National Fisheries Committee on the attractiveness of the fishing profession.

"I've wanted to make this story for a long time. These sailors are mostly tens of nautical miles from the coast – there, for more than a month, they will be in the English Channel for herring. This is a unique opportunity to keep a logbook. I will be the eyes of those who remain on the ground. I want to introduce them to the different parts of the vessel and the fishing manoeuvres, but also to make them understand the trades – the lives behind it, too. – Thomas Troadec, documentary filmmaker (Agence Catalpa)

Thomas Troadec previously filmed aboard the Scombrus

Direction the Eastern Channel.

For four weeks of herring fishing, with a passage during the tide on the Scombrus, the other ship of the armament, an 81 meter from 2020. The documentary filmmaker will share every day a clip of a few minutes, video or sound, broadcast on the shipowner's website and Linkedin page.

The Scombrus is currently fishing Sw of the Shetlands.

The objective of this campaign is clear. As practically every year, especially last autumn , the presence in the Channel of these "giant super-trawlers" for the herring season is the subject of criticism which, according to the shipping line, stems "from a lack of knowledge of the realities of industrial fishing as we practice it” .

"By opening the doors of our vessels in this way, we want to make pelagic fishing known to anyone who wishes, in all its dimensions ," said Geoffroy Dhellemmes, general manager of France pélagique, in a press release. Explain the techniques, the regulatory framework and show the men who devote themselves to it. Pedagogy and transparency, for a better knowledge of the sector. »

Will this displayed transparency silence the critics, or at least attenuate them? Nothing could be less certain, in a climate already strained by the issue of the flyshooter seineers, which shows the same divisions between industrial fishing with Dutch capital and artisanal fishing in Normandy and Hauts-de-France.

You can read (in French) the company's PR material below.