"It's as if we were closing a large factory", warns the president of Pays bigouden sud About 650 people demonstrated on Saturday February 25 in Pont-L'Abbé, in Finistère, to challenge the government on the impact of the fleet exit plan on fishing in the Bigouden region.
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| 650 people gathered on Saturday February 25 in Pont-L'Abbé, at the call of the elected officials of the Bigouden country. (MARY SEBIRE / HANS LUCAS) |
"It's as if we were closing a big factory" , warns Stéphane Le Doare, president of Pays bigouden sud and mayor of Pont-L'abbé, on franceinfo. 650 fishermen demonstrated on Saturday February 25 in this town located in the south of Finistère, reports France Bleu Breizh Izel .
The demonstration was organized at the call of the elected officials of the Bigouden country to ask the government to defend the fishing industry. After Brexit and the announcement of the limitation of fishing licenses, 26 boats will be scrapped at the port of Guilvinec. "The maritime sector represents 2,000 jobs in the Bigouden country alone, from shipbuilding to transport with, in the middle of all this, of course, the sailors-fishermen. A job at sea is five jobs on land", underlines the chosen one. If we lose 120 to 150 sailors, behind that we have 600 to 700 jobs threatened very directly."
We need "a new economic model" For Stéphane Le Doare, "it's like closing a big factory, except that it's full of small businesses" . Several local elected officials have therefore decided to mobilize because "when a factory of 600 employees closes, it makes a lot of noise but there, it is two, three or ten people here or there".
The president of Pays bigouden sud is "convinced that there is a future for fishing" even if it is necessary to "rewrite a new economic model" . However, he says he is "well aware that the good years are behind us, that the model must be renewed" . The city councilor affirms, with the other local elected officials, wanting to "be force of proposals" in the hope that the government will retain some of them and that "announcements will be made in the coming weeks to save this sector which feeds France" .
Aid for fishermen extended until October Emmanuel Macron spoke the same day with fishermen at the agricultural show. The President of the Republic notably announced the extension of the financial aid granted to fishermen to deal with the rise in fuel prices. This aid, of 20 cents excluding tax per liter of diesel, was due to expire in mid-May, and will finally be extended until October. But "it's still short ," says Stéphane Le Doare. Because this does not allow fishermen "to have a serene visibility by the end of the year" .
The elected official believes that there are two other "emergency measures" to be taken. One concerns licenses and quotas: “We have the licenses which are attached to the boats which are going to be deconstructed and which we wish to see return to our maritime district to be able to install new sailors who leave with new units at sea. As for the quotas, "we must recover the lost tonnages. We have more efficient and more modern boats which have fishing capacities but we do not give them the quotas to fish", he regrets .
Then, according to him, there is "an extremely strategic point which is going a little under silence for the moment, it is this European desire to prohibit trawling and dredging fishing in marine protected areas . However, opposite Back home, we only fish in marine protected areas".
The demonstration was organized at the call of the elected officials of the Bigouden country to ask the government to defend the fishing industry. After Brexit and the announcement of the limitation of fishing licenses, 26 boats will be scrapped at the port of Guilvinec. "The maritime sector represents 2,000 jobs in the Bigouden country alone, from shipbuilding to transport with, in the middle of all this, of course, the sailors-fishermen. A job at sea is five jobs on land", underlines the chosen one. If we lose 120 to 150 sailors, behind that we have 600 to 700 jobs threatened very directly."
We need "a new economic model" For Stéphane Le Doare, "it's like closing a big factory, except that it's full of small businesses" . Several local elected officials have therefore decided to mobilize because "when a factory of 600 employees closes, it makes a lot of noise but there, it is two, three or ten people here or there".
The president of Pays bigouden sud is "convinced that there is a future for fishing" even if it is necessary to "rewrite a new economic model" . However, he says he is "well aware that the good years are behind us, that the model must be renewed" . The city councilor affirms, with the other local elected officials, wanting to "be force of proposals" in the hope that the government will retain some of them and that "announcements will be made in the coming weeks to save this sector which feeds France" .
Aid for fishermen extended until October Emmanuel Macron spoke the same day with fishermen at the agricultural show. The President of the Republic notably announced the extension of the financial aid granted to fishermen to deal with the rise in fuel prices. This aid, of 20 cents excluding tax per liter of diesel, was due to expire in mid-May, and will finally be extended until October. But "it's still short ," says Stéphane Le Doare. Because this does not allow fishermen "to have a serene visibility by the end of the year" .
The elected official believes that there are two other "emergency measures" to be taken. One concerns licenses and quotas: “We have the licenses which are attached to the boats which are going to be deconstructed and which we wish to see return to our maritime district to be able to install new sailors who leave with new units at sea. As for the quotas, "we must recover the lost tonnages. We have more efficient and more modern boats which have fishing capacities but we do not give them the quotas to fish", he regrets .
Then, according to him, there is "an extremely strategic point which is going a little under silence for the moment, it is this European desire to prohibit trawling and dredging fishing in marine protected areas . However, opposite Back home, we only fish in marine protected areas".