The real-life experiences of a Breton fisherman from Concarneau and some interesting parallels between fishing and living in Brittany and coastal regions in the UK - especially with regard to second homes
"In 2007, I embarked with Philippe Déru, owner of the liner in Concarneau, on his boat, Le Moineau . I film his gaze that “seeks the fish” and his enthusiasm when big bass come aboard. This day when I accompany him, happy to fish well, Philippe will say that I am “fishing”, a sign that fishing is also a question of luck.
He fishes for bass on his own with a fresh bait, sand eel, which he keeps alive in washing machine drums recycled into tanks. Philippe testifies to a great knowledge of the behaviour of fish and in particular the bass, also called "the wolf" because it is a "predator" who, when young, likes to play with the bait without necessarily eating it. During the shrimp season (September and October), which sea bass are fond of, this fish is caught "drier", almost on the surface, while the rest of the year, it frequents the sea bass the deep sandeel "nurseries".
Philippe observes that bass adopts a gregarious behaviour, for example when he sees his congeners feeding, he is able to vomit what he has just ingested in order to eat in his turn. And when it is "shocking calm" and the bass is sunning itself on the surface of the water, it would be futile to try to capture it because it is at rest and not looking for food. It happens that the bass gets angry and kills other fish (sardines, mackerel), and in this case the fisherman must adapt to his behavior by attracting him by means of a decoy which excites it by the noise or the movement it generates. In addition, Philippe also evokes the behavior of this other fish that is the conger eel, which is not, as it is claimed, a scavenger, but requires a fresh bait that it smells, tastes, chews, and only bites please. We can thus understand the agency that fishermen give to fish, in particular through certain expressions they use where "the fish" is conceived at the same time as object and subject of fishing, for example when they affirm that "the fish fishes. ", Or that" he works ".
Philippe's repeated gestures while fishing or when he bleeds certain fish (plaice, rays, juliennes, conger eels but not sea bas or sea bream), piercing their hearts to prevent them from suffering from death by asphyxiation and that they do not blush in order to sell them at their best price. This sailor has practiced all types of fishing, but he prefers the trap or longlines because, from an ecological point of view, it is a “cleaner” fishery, “with less waste”, compared to trawl that “cleans” the ocean, catching large numbers of smaller-than-size fish that are “tipped into the water” when they are no longer alive. He also denounces the ecological waste linked to the "withdrawal price" policy implemented for certain species by the European Union from 1983 to 2014, to have their catch noted before "putting it in the trash". As Philippe points out, “going to work knowing that the fish caught will be thrown away ” is obviously contrary to the ethics of the fishing profession and to the adrenaline that comes with it.
He points out that the living conditions aboard a trawler are difficult, having left for two weeks at sea and sleeping only one hour out of four, the fishermen are tired and "on edge". I point out to him that the sailors that I have observed at work are always standing and hardly ever sit down, he replies that he does, including when he goes to the fishing grounds, for fear of doze off. He also explains that men smoke a lot at sea insofar as cigarettes constitute, on the one hand, a "de-stressing", helping to relieve the tension inherent in fishing, and on the other hand, an "appetite suppressant" often not having time to eat given the intensity of the work. During this filming, I would have several times the opportunity to film the face of Philippe who draws puffs of smoke from his cigarette while manoeuvring his engine or raising his line.
Work accidents are not uncommon at sea, Philippe says that a sailor on board his boat had stuck a mule thorn in his hand while he was doing a "big blow", having pocketed in three days this what he usually earns in a month. He, himself, slipped several times on the bridge following "rolls", falls at the origin of his hip problem which made him "limp low", a problem that he would like to see recognised as a disease professionally by the doctor of the royal navy who also examines the fishermen. Without counting the number of fatal accidents, in particular on trawlers, where it happens that men are "sent to the water with the trawl". He evokes a series of shipwrecks that occurred in 1978-79, where out of seven fishermen who left the Concarneau fishing school, six in their twenties died at sea: “It was a blow! ". In such a case, a solidarity fund, formed by the fishermen from a percentage taken from their auction sale, makes it possible to collect death benefit and funeral assistance.
He evokes the obligation of solidarity at sea, which he compares to that which exists in the desert, especially in Mauritania, which means that a sailor will come to the aid of anyone in danger, "even to his worst enemy", as well as 'a Saharan will welcome anyone who needs it, including a member of an enemy tribe. This awareness of the danger also explains why conflicts at sea are not as exacerbated as on land, a “punch” that could immediately bring a sailor “overboard” and cost him his life.
He observes that before, in Finistère, there was almost a fishing school in each port, which trained around 150 young people per year, but today there is only the European maritime centre for continuing training in Concarneau. as well as the professional maritime school of Guilvinec. He observes that it is very difficult nowadays to become a fisherman given the cost of the boat which is now sold with a "fishing right" or PME (license to operate), the necessary recourse to a bank loan, and going before a maritime commission that assesses the merits of the professional project. Until the 1960s, in Concarneau as in other ports, the system of quirats (quirataire) allowed notables (notaries ...) or traders (seed, pharmacist) to invest in fishing by buying a part of the boat, as evidenced by the Nicot fleet - bought in 2004 by Intermarché - resulting from the investment in the 1940s by Pierre Nicot, seed producer of Melgven, in a trawler from Concarneau, the premise of a long series of acquisitions. Philippe remarks that previously a sailor built his boat in relation to his physical build and the type of fishing he practiced, and that some boats resembled real "wooden cathedrals".
I pointed out to him that many fish have feminine names like "the damsel", or the "cod" which designates a "prostitute", and which has for male counterpart mackerel ". He hypothesises that the "mac" owes its name to this species of fish insofar as its stripes recall the "striped costume" of pimps; the ports being places of prostitution, it is indeed probable that certain fish were used as lexical referent to designate the prostitution environment. Philippe describes the role of prostitutes in Madagascar who were allowed to board commercial boats and take over cabins. Relations with the latter were not strictly economic-sexual, as it could be with prostitutes in Bordeaux or Amsterdam, insofar as they did not offer not only "sexual services" but could also wash sailors' clothes. In return, they brought them to eat and dance, offered them small gifts, and could keep a special bond with one of them during the next stopovers. As for the young boy, he was under the responsibility of an "older", the bosco in commerce, who made sure that he did not venture into too dangerous neighbourhoods.
On the occasion of a stopover in a distant country, it happened that commercial sailors met on the spot a woman whom they married and brought back to France, like an Indonesian, whose daughter, Sabaya, was astonished to have was elected queen of the Blue Nets festival in 2004 in Concarneau: "From there to being crowned one day queen of the Blue nets. My skin was not necessarily very local colour". It could also happen that after having spent all their life sailing far from their families, commercial seamen, returning to their homes at retirement age, had some problem of cohabitation with their wives and decided to return to the country where they had left their sweetheart. Philippe brings up the subject infidelity both on the side of sailors and their wives, and homosexuality, which, according to legend, would have been allowed in the English navy after three days at sea given the "absence of women" . He underlines the importance of virility in fishermen who pride themselves on being "tough". He relates that when he sailed in the trade, talking about politics was strictly forbidden, and that anyone who broke this rule was "fined" by having to pay the crew a bottle; on the other hand, two themes remained unifying: “food and women”.
In the 80s and 90s, with his wife and two children, Philippe lived for fifteen years, in a spartan but paradisiacal way, on the “islands”, the Glénans, where a “good atmosphere” reigned among fishermen since he was not uncommon for them to help each other and alternately fish in the winter on one or the other's boat. He then returned to fish in Concarneau, where, as in many ports, competition reigns between fishermen: "If you fish well and put your fish on the auction, another will pick up the exact point of your dhans and will take your place… He will get up earlier to go to your fishing area and put his equipment. He has the right since no sailor at sea owns an area ”. Philippe thus distinguishes two categories of fishermen, those who truly “seek” fish, He compares the sailor to a child who asks his sea-mother to be ever more generous towards him.
He notes that in Madagascar, particularly in Evatra in the Fort-Dauphin region, fishermen forge their hooks themselves from old box spring springs and that if they drop them in the water, they are able to dive to retrieve them, while for a Westerner a hook has no such value. He observes that their canoe is often a collective good bought together, whereas in France the fishermen are obliged to contract significant debts with banks to buy their work tool. He notes with satisfaction that Malagasy fishermen have kept their living environment, when in Finistère the fishermen's houses are bought by summer visitors who repaint them according to the clean image they have of Brittany. He also criticizes the craze for "sailors' songs" found in all "maritime festivals", even though the fishermen did not have time to sing on board and the music for these songs came from most of the Wehrmacht marches.
He notes that, despite what one might think, the fishermen of Concarneau are not originally from this city but come mainly from the surrounding peasant localities (Nevez, Moëlan-sur-mer), and sometimes from Morbihan (Le Bono). Philippe explains the difference in mentality between the Concarnois fishermen who practice more industrial fishing and the Bigouden, who are more artisanal. He indicates that the festival of Blue Nets was born in 1905 in Concarneau in solidarity with the sardineers who had made fishing as well as with the sardine plants who worked in the canning factories - which numbered only two today (Burel and Gonidec).
It also evokes the life of dockers who could earn a lot of money when fishing was flourishing and whose work, admittedly arduous, is not, however, as important as the profession of a sailor, since "it is more difficult to fill a boat than to empty it". Philippe speaks with admiration of the few women who do this hard job, noting that they don't have hands like mine!"