Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) by many nations 

 around the world in the mid-1970s. 



The Government of France has always been 

 deeply involved in the fishery. Fishermen, like 

 farmers, constitute an important political interest 

 group (there were nearly 23,000 registered fishermen 

 in France in 1992), and have proven willing to carry 

 out acts of civil disobedience such as blockading 

 ports and destroying imported fish on the docks, as 

 happened in Boulogne in March 1993. As has been 

 the case for most EC fishermen, the French have 

 resisted many aspects of the Common Fisheries 

 Policy (CFP), especially those which allow vessels of 

 one member state to fish in the waters of another 

 while restricting overall fishing effort. France has 

 provided several types of income support and 

 subsidies for fishing operations, often incurring the 

 wrath of European Community partners such as the 

 United Kingdom and Spain. 



France is a major player on the world fishing 

 scene. It maintained 90 to 153 distant-water vessels 

 in 1992-93.' French vessels are able to fish 

 anywhere in the world, but they focus their high-seas 

 efforts in the northeast Atlantic, the western Indian 

 Ocean, the eastern central Atlantic, and in the 

 Mediterranean. The principal species in the French 

 highseas fisheries include tunas, saithe, whiting, 

 hake, anglerfish, cuttlefish and squid, and lobsters. 



2. Fleet Background 



French policies regulating the fishing fleet are 

 rooted in the aftermath of the Second World War. 

 Much of the French fleet was damaged or destroyed 

 during the war. Subsequently, the French 

 Government offered subsidies and other incentives to 

 encourage the restoration of the fishing fleet. 

 Between 1945 and 1952 construction of large-scale 

 vessels was given priority, encouraged by low- 

 interest loans guaranteed by the state.^ By 1953, the 

 fishing capacity of the French fleet had increased 

 tremendously.' French planners began to worry by 

 the end of the 1950s, that capacity was outstripping 

 the available resources. As a result, there was a 

 series of plans to reduce size of the fleet and/or 

 modernize the fleet during the 1960s. Improved 

 technology resulted in increased fishing productivity 

 per vessel, but landings continued to decline. At the 

 same time, international competition for fish stocks 

 was intensifying. 



Between 1966 and 1975 French fishery 

 administrators became conscious of international 

 competition. They reacted to this perceived threat by 

 shifting away from their previous conservation policy 

 and encouraging large-scale fishing enterprises. The 

 French Government believed that large enterprises 

 were best able to take advantage of technological 

 innovations in distant-water fisheries, which 

 represented at the time over half of all French 

 landings.' New subsidy programs, resulted in the 

 purchase of new stem trawlers in the early 1970s. 

 The plans for fleet expansion, however, were 

 disrupted by an oil crisis in 1973, which caused fuel 

 prices to double while ex- vessel prices slumped.'" 



The next major development in the French 

 fishery was the declaration of 200-mile exclusive 

 economic zones by many nations in 1977. The EC 

 also aimounced a 200-mile limit, extending its 

 jurisdiction over much of the North Atlantic. Within 

 EC waters, new quota systems were implemented to 

 lessen competition among EC fleets. It was around 

 this time that a "subsidy war" among EC member 

 states began. Although productivity as measured in 

 terms of catch per vessel rose over this period, vessel 

 operators continued to lose money as fuel costs rose 

 due to the 1979-80 oil crisis. Member states offered 

 subsidies both for vessel construction (the self-finance 

 proportion fell to 10%) and for fuel purchases. 

 Meanwhile, the focus of the French fleet renewal 

 policy shifted to small-scale ("artisanal" or inshore) 

 fisheries." One initiative went so far as to promote 

 sail-powered fishing vessels, which would not require 

 fuel.'^ The 1981-82 recession in Europe increased 

 political pressure to expand subsidy programs in the 

 name of "social peace," as fear of bankruptcies and 

 unemployment in the fishing sector grew." 



Figure l.-The French high-seas fleet. 1975-92. 



70 



