The destructive power of the super trawler

News from the Celtic League:

I have documented at length the impact of industrial fishing from Senegal in West Africa to Scandinavia.

Large trawlers literally vacuum the fish sticks in these areas and some of them have the capacity to process hundreds of tonnes of fish per day – they are in effect floating factories.

There impact on local communities that have made a living in some instances for centuries by managing fish stocks have been well publicised not least in the Irish documentary ‘Atlantic’ which outlines the hardship now being faced by some small fishing communities in Western Ireland and Northern Europe.

I recently came across this article in 7seizh which highlights a similar problem for sea bass fishermen in Brittany and is in the form of a letter/appeal to fish processors.

The large trawlers whose path we have tracked over the past few years aggressively target fish in the Channel area between Cornwall and Brittany and it seems their destructive impact of not allowing stocks to regenerate is being felt:

“L’association des ligneurs de la Pointe de Bretagne impose à ses adhérents depuis de nombreuses années un repos biologique entre février et mars. En plus de diminuer la pression de pêche sur l’année, ce repos permet de laisser le poisson se reproduire durant la saison cruciale de la reproduction.

“Malheureusement, c’est durant cette période que le bar est particulièrement vulnérable car il se regroupe pour frayer et se laisse capturer en quantités astronomiques par des gros chalutiers ou fileyeurs. Ces derniers ont littéralement mis à sac les populations de bar en Manche, poussant les ligneurs de la zone à sortir de la pêcherie ou à carrément quitter le métier de pêcheur. En plus d’être une pratique de pêche intolérable, perturbant le frai du poisson, surexploitant une espèce fragile, le poisson qu’ils mettent ensuite sur le marché est de qualité désastreuse et est vendu à un prix ridiculement faible, moins de 40% du prix que nous, nous en retirons.2

Full article in 7seizh at this link:

http://7seizh.info/…/maritime-ligneurs-de-pointe-de-bretag…/

Image: Sea bass on the fishmongers slab but for how long?

BERNARD MOFFATT

pp Celtic League.

23/04/17

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