Fishermen to hold peace talks after scallop dispute flares up
PARIS: French and British fishermen pledged talks to quell a highseas dispute over access to the scallop-rich seabed in the Baie de Seine after French vessels chased their rivals out of the zone, hurling projectiles and insults.
French vessels rammed British scallop dredgers on Tuesday off the coast of Normandy in an attack English fisherman Ciaran Cardell described as like “a scene out of Vietnam”.
“They just came out and surrounded our fleet, throwing petrol bombs.
“It was mental,” said Cardell, a scallop fisherman from Cornwall who said his boat was attacked by about 15 French scallop fishing boats in international waters.
The French are irritated that British fishermen are allowed to harvest scallops, a key earner for France’s Normandy region, throughout the year, while they are prevented from doing so during the summer.
“This is well beyond legal behaviour. We have asked the British government to intervene at a diplomatic level but also to provide protection for our vessels,” Barrie Deas, head of Britain’s fishermen’s organisations, told BBC radio.
British environment minister Michael Gove said the UK boats were fishing legally.
He told BBC television: “We can insist that the French, because they have a legal responsibility to ensure that we don’t have scenes like those we saw earlier this week, ensure that those waters – their territorial waters – are appropriately policed so that legal fishing activity can continue.”
The head of Normandy’s fishing organisation Dimitri Rogoff said the attack was spontaneous but acknowledged events spiralled out of control. He said he deplored the violence.
“There should not be any brawling, that could end badly. Our main UK counterpart has proposed we hold talks quickly in France, we’ll receive a UK delegation in the coming days,” Rogoff said onWednesday. — Reuters