He taps his boots against the shiny floor of the Guilvinec fish market (Finistère) to warm up. This Monday, October 16, Mickaël Guiheneuf awaits the verdict of two days of fishing aboard the Stuntman, a 14 meter trawler. The sailor observes fishmongers and fishmongers examining his products. Boxes of pout sell for 25 cents per kilogram. The bids go up for the 200 kilograms of langoustines. The largest ones sell for 22 euros per kilogram. The smallest at 11.
“Here’s finally a pretty peachsavors Mickaël Guiheneuf. Currently, a day must generate at least 1,000 euros in turnover to be profitable. It’s getting more and more difficult. On the Stuntman, we now sail in twos instead of four to earn our living. Fishing is dying and no one cares…”
Mickaël Guiheneuf speaks of the future of his profession with fatalism. This is the feeling that dominates the quays of Brittany, this region which provides half of French fishing. In the spring, the mood was more angry. On March 22, 500 professionals marched in Rennes to express “fed up with a profession on borrowed time”. The gathering turned into a confrontation with the police. A few days later, in Brest, the building of the French Biodiversity Office was bombarded with distress rockets before burning in the night. An investigation is underway to clarify the link between the fire and this violent demonstration which took place on the sidelines of the national operation “Dead port”.
Lack of visibility
“The profession is under tension because it is facing an unprecedented wave of attacks”, explains Olivier Le Nézet, president of the National Fisheries Committee. From his office overlooking the port of Keroman which he manages, in Lorient (Morbihan), the fifty-year-old insists: “Fishing needs a Marshall Plan, but we can only discuss the future of the sector after having stabilized its survival. »
The fishermen’s spokesperson avoids the fundamental problems that have plagued the profession for years to focus on the emergency: the price of fuel. Currently, a liter costs 80 cents. A few weeks ago, he was familiar with the euro. Over the past ten years, fishermen paid an average of 50 cents. According to the sailors, this is the price that should not be exceeded to ensure the profitability of their businesses. A boat like the Stuntman burns 700 liters of diesel per tide. An old 24-meter trawler scraping the bottom of the Bay of Biscay for around ten days swallowed up more than 27,000 liters.
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