A British fishing boat has been seized by France after a French captain accused UK trawlers of plundering their resources in the latest ‘Scallop War’ flare-up.
The Scottish fishing boat, named the Star of Jura, was seized off the coast of Calvados, in the Normandy region of northwestern France on Monday, after the vessel was ordered into the Channel port of Le Havre on suspicion of catching undersized scallops.
The skipper, who has not been named, took his 19-metre scallop dredger into the port on Saturday while being escorted by a maritime police boat after an inspection uncovered an illegal catch, French authorities revealed.
French inspectors who boarded the Star of Jura found up to a tonne of undersized scallops in its mega catch of 16 tonnes – with the load taken just outside of the Bay of Seine fishing zone.
‘We’re fed up. Not only do we not have the same standards, but they’re also coming to plunder the resource right in front of our homes!,’ an angered Norman fishing captain said.
French authorities said British vessels often use dredging equipment that allows them to bring scallops less than 11cm in diameter to surface, which is the smallest permitted by law.
According to the rules, fishing smaller scallops disturbs their reproduction and fishermen are expected to put the undersized molluscs back into the sea.
After the Scottish boat was diverted into the port, local Norman fishermen were left furious at the ‘very penalising difference in fishing rules’.
‘The English can fish for longer, with less restrictive standards and gear. And we have to watch without flinching as they plunder the deposits and threaten the resource for years to come,’ Pascal, a fishing skipper from Calvados told LeParisien.
The prosecutor’s office in Normandy will decide whether to take action against the captain of the British ship following the police report.
The captain now also faces a fine of up to almost £12,500 as well as the seizure of their entire cargo which is valued at around £29,000, authorities told local media
This incident is just the latest episode in the decade-old ‘scallop war’ involving British boats and French authorities.
Normandy fishermen, who rely on scallops for a staggering 50 per cent of their income, accuse the British of ravaging their scallop beds.
The French want their ‘Anglo-Saxon’ counterparts to stay north of a line running from Barfleur to Cap d’Antifer, both of which are in Normandy, and to only use small vessels to avoid running supplies down.
Normandy fishing chief Dimitri Rogoff said in 2021: ‘The French engaged the British to stop them fishing, and they clashed with each other.’
French boats currently only have the right to fish for scallops from October 1 until May 15 to allow local stocks to breed and regenerate.
In the most dramatic scallop clash, in 2018, a group of French boats reportedly attacked British vessels in the Bay of Seine when rocks, smoke bombs and other objects were said to have been launched at English and Scottish vessels.
