Crab wars kick off as the scallop skirmish ends

WITH the scallop wars barely over, new tensions have emerged in the English Channel in the form of crab wars.

Cornish fishermen say French trawlers have cost them hundreds of thousands of pounds by sabotaging their crab pots. They said the trawlers were seen in English waters towing nets “without a care in the world” within the UK’S 12-mile limit.

Paul Trebilcock, of the Cornish Fish Producers Organisation (CFPO), said: “They drag through the gear, break the ropes, damage the pots or tow them away altogether.” Devoid of action from government agencies, the fishermen took matters into their own hands yesterday, thrashing it out with French fishermen face-to-face in Plymouth.

Mr Trebilcock thought the damage, caused by trawlermen from Brittany, could be Brexit-related or linked with frustrations caused by the scallop wars.

“Much pre-dates the scallop wars but the tensions could all be rooted in the same thing and it is unlikely to have helped,” he said. “We tell the French the areas where the crab pots are and they usually ignore it but they have been claiming, incredibly, that they did not know where the gear was.

“These are small businesses losing hundreds of thousands of pounds – it’s significant and has been going on for several months. There was a lot of anger and we knew it could not carry on.” He said the Government’s alleged reluctance to become involved had been “disappointing.”

He said: “Neither Defra (the Department for Food and Rural Affairs) or the Maritime Management Organisation have helped us. As fishermen, we have had to go to the French on a fisherman to fisherman basis to sort this out.”

The CFPO called the meeting, which it said had had a positive outcome.

“They claimed there had been a breakdown in communications and this was the work of one or two rogue skippers,” Mr Trebilcock said.

“We have a working understanding for going forward and they have vowed to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We will have a follow-up meeting.”

The tensions came to light just days after the British and French agreed to end the so-called scallop wars.

Earlier this month, about 40 French vessels fired flares, hurled stones and rammed a group of British trawlers fishing legally in waters off France.

French fishermen are banned from catching scallops between May 15 and Oct 1 to conserve stocks but British boats are not subject to the ban.

From Tuesday, larger British boats withdrew from the disputed area off the Normandy coast for six weeks. Ukbased boats under 15m long will still be able to fish in the Bay of Seine, where the row broke out in August.

Defra did not respond to a request for comment.