Enough is enough! Demagogic decisions are raining down more and more on the world of professional maritime, estuarine and continental fishing in the name of so-called resource protection. After the eel, the dolphins in the name of a precautionary principle, a convenient excuse to forget the failure of the Member States and the European Union to implement the Water Framework Directive, the Marine Strategy Directive and the Habitats Directive, the objectives of which are constantly being postponed to the great disappointment of the fishermen who are the first to suffer the consequences.

In the name of an environmental business and increasingly frequent judicialization, certain NGOs and so-called nature protection associations are targeting these artisanal fishing communities that make up the richness and diversity of our territories. What would a port be without a fishing boat, without an fish-auction: a simple boat garage! These activities have structured our coastal landscapes and constitute a large part of the attractiveness of our coastlines. The diversity of the products they land, their quality, and their low-carbon footprint make it possible to maintain a gastronomy that is part of the reputation of our maritime and mainland regions.

To attack professional fishing without discernment and without taking care to understand the roots of the decrease in our aquatic resources is an irresponsible behaviour of certain NGOs and associations. They are thus indirectly excusing those who concret, pollute, drain and fill in our coastlines, estuaries and watersheds, weakening the ecological continuity between essential habitats for a large number of species that constitute the living resources of our coastal, estuarine and continental environments.

The National Committee for marine fisheries and marine fish farming has just published a press release on this subject: Dead Sea Sector Days.

This press release was taken up in many fishing harbours of the French atlantic coast and of the Mediterranean sea and completed by papers adapted to the particular situation of the fleets. For example, the one distributed in Saint-Jean de Luz: “Funeral Eulogy for Fishing”