Artisanal Tuna Fishermen Want To “End The Race For Fish” ff

Source: 20 Minutes

The artisanal fishery, which accounts for 80% of the French fleet, have decided to unite to defend their rights, in both Paris and Brussels, with the help of Greenpeace and the WWF “to get out of the cliché ‘friends of the fish versus friends of the fishermen’”. Artisanal fishing is practiced with a maximum of three sailors on boats of under 12 meters.

“We want to make the voice of small fishing trades heard because we are absent from all decision-making bodies,” said Anne-Marie Vergez, skipper in St. Jean de Luz in the Basque Country.

Together with colleagues from small trades in Brittany and Languedoc-Roussillon, Vergez presented a joint statement of these small trades “committed to the protection of the marine environment, which is a necessary condition for the continuity of our business.”

Representatives of different coastlines on the mainland have called on all artisanal fishermen from France and regions overseas to create a national platform, such as exists in Denmark, Spain and Greece. The three associations have already 500 members in total and hope to end 2012 with 1000.

In the negotiations held in Brussels to reform the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP), artisanal fishermen stressed that they have always practiced a responsible and sustainable fishery, contrary to the activities of large trawlers accused of destroying fish stocks.

The alliance with NGOs may seem “unexpected,” said Helen Bourges, in charge of the campaign at Greenpeace Oceans, “but NGOs and small fishermen agree on what can be a sustainable fishery.”

Among the reforms proposed by Brussels for the new CFP, small fishermen recognized the need “to end the race for fish” but reject the idea of transferable fishing concessions. This system will only regulate the fishing capacity for the market and reserve fishing rights to a few large boatowners when they should establish the access to the resources based on environmental, social and territorial criteria.