On his trawler in Saint-Malo, one of France\u2019s most important ports for scallops and crabs, Laurent Mevel is fixing his nets. \u201cWe really want to protect the seas,\u201d says the 60-year-old fisher. \u201cBut we\u2019ve got crews, we\u2019ve got employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you don\u2019t fish any more, the fish will come from Ireland, from Scotland. Now the fish you buy from shops comes by plane. And costs less.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mevel family has been fishing the waters off Brittany as long as they can remember. Beside him, Mevel\u2019s father, Emile, 83, is also on the boat untangling nylon. Mevel\u2019s 29-year-old son, Cl\u00e9ment, is busying about. The family trawler catches fish, cuttlefish and \u201clots of scallops\u201d.<\/p>\n
But soon all that could be over, says Mevel, who claims environmental measures are slowly killing the fishing industry. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to make do on peanuts,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll become a heritage asset. That\u2019s not what we want; we just want to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our international credibility is at stake<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Open letter to Macron<\/p>\n
This weekend, world leaders will gather in Nice, on the south coast of France, for a UN summit to tackle what they describe as a \u201cglobal emergency<\/a>\u201d facing the world\u2019s seas. Co-hosted by Costa Rica and France, which expects 70 heads of state to attend, the UN ocean conference (UNOC) seeks to build global unity on issues such as plastic pollution, industrial fishing and deep-sea mining to halt the decline of marine environments.<\/p>\n
But the conference will also shine a spotlight on a difficult dilemma for its host, Emmanuel Macron. The French president has high ambitions for the summit, chief among them getting 60 nations to ratify the high seas treaty<\/a> to protect biodiversity in international waters, agreed in 2023.<\/p>\n
This would be enough to bring into force the treaty, which is crucial to meet a globally agreed biodiversity target of protecting 30% of the oceans by 2030, known as \u201c30×30<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n
Emile, left, and Laurent Mevel, have been plying the waters off Saint-Malo as long as they can remember. Photograph: Richard Assheton<\/p>\n
Yet, in waters closer to home, Macron faces some serious opposition to his role as environmental protector. This comes from numerous voices within a powerful fishing industry that has been opposing efforts to limit the impact of bottom trawling<\/a>, a destructive fishing method, off the French coast. Theirs is no small collective voice \u2013 because of its overseas territories, France has the world\u2019s second-largest maritime area<\/a> after the US.<\/p>\n
Critics say that as a result, France is doing less than others to protect its seabed and biodiversity, by failing to ban bottom trawling in \u201cprotected\u201d areas. France claims<\/a> to have protected 33% of its ocean with specially designed marine protected areas (MPAs) but in reality 98% allow destructive activities<\/a> and only 0.03% are strictly protected, the Oceana conservation organisation claims.<\/p>\n
Maybe ports will be blocked; maybe fishermen could go further with the far right \u2013 and cause trouble at the next election<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Gauthier Carle, Ocean & Climate Platform<\/p>\n
An open letter<\/a> to Macron from 60 scientists and environmental experts, published by Le Figaro in March, drew unfavourable comparisons between the UNOC co-host and countries including Britain, Sweden and Greece, which are taking action to ban bottom trawling in protected areas. \u201cOur international credibility is at stake,\u201d they warned.<\/p>\n
The European Union goes further than the 30×30 target, recommending that 10% of European coastal and marine waters be safeguarded under a \u201cstrict protection\u201d regime. Environmentalists say France does not meet this recommendation or formally prohibit industrial activity, bar mining and mineral extraction.<\/p>\n
Jean-Pierre Gattuso, research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, believes France to be a leader in ocean science and protection. But bottom trawling in MPAs is a \u201cdark spot\u201d on the nation\u2019s record, he says.<\/p>\n
An exhibition, the Whale, will showcase ocean literacy, conservation and marine biodiversity at the UN ocean conference in Nice. Photograph: Fr\u00e9d\u00e9ric Dides\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cClearly it\u2019s inappropriate to have bottom trawling in marine protected areas,\u201d he says. \u201cDavid Attenborough\u2019s movie, Ocean<\/a>, had footage showing just how destructive it is. This is a hot topic because there\u2019s a conflict of usage.\u201d<\/p>\n