4. Decommissioning Programs 



The most recent decommissioning program was 

 the Mellick Plan, named after the former French 

 Minister of the Sea, Jacques Mellick. The French 

 government carried out this initiative through 

 December 1991, offering payments to the owners of 

 vessels which were destroyed or sold outside the EC. 

 The program was successful, as on January 2, 1992, 

 the capacity stood at 1 ,057,680 kilowatts (kw).'^" The 

 social impact of the Mellick Plan is yet to be 

 appreciated, though hundreds of jobs were lost in the 

 industry, especially in coastal regions, whose fleets 

 harvested juvenile fish. As of July 1993, there are 

 no government initiatives in France explicitly 

 designed to reduce the fishing fleet.-' 



The EC's Multi-armual Guidance Program dating 

 back to December 1987, mandated that French 

 capacity decline to 1 ,055,000 kw by January 1 , 1992, 

 failing which France would forfeit EC fleet 

 modernization assistance. Efforts by the French 

 government to reduce the size of the French fleet 

 have been successful; the capacity of the fleet was 

 only 2,680 kw above the EC MAGP standard on 

 January 2, 1992. 



5. Shipyards 



As recently as ten years ago, France boasted of 

 dozens of shipyards producing vessels for French and 

 foreign commercial operators. However, the French 

 shipbuilding industry has since been in decline, and 

 the fifteen major shipyards of 1983 have since been 

 reduced to one (Chantier de 1' Atlantique), which does 

 not build fishing vessels." Other medium-sized 

 shipyards like La Societe Nouvelle des Ateliers et 

 Chantiers concentrate on other sectors of shipbuilding 

 while turning out the occasional fishing vessel. The 

 largest yard concentrating on the fishing sector is the 

 Leroux and Lotz group, most of whose fishing 

 vessels are delivered to French concerns. In 1991, 

 Leroux and Lotz delivered two 82-meter tuna freezer 

 purse seiners which now operate as part of the 

 French fleet." 



Other French shipyards producing fishing vessels 

 include Ateliers et Chantiers de la Manche (ACM), 

 whose fishing vessels enjoy a Europe-wide 

 reputation.-'' ACM maintains two shipyards, one in 

 Dieppe along the English Channel, the other in St. 

 Malo along the Atlantic coast. Chantiers Benetau of 



St. Hilaire de Riez also does a thriving business in 

 fishing vessels. Since 1988, Benetau has been 

 concentrating upon foreign orders, with Cameroon as 

 a prominent customer." 



6. International Agreements 



As a member of the European Community, 

 French fisheries policy is now subordinate to the 

 Common Fisheries Policy. The Community is also 

 responsible for international fishery relations. France 

 is thus a participant in all EC bilateral and 

 multilateral accords. Its vessels are entitled to 

 harvest in areas opened to the EC as a whole. 



France is active in a number of regional bodies 

 which control access to a number of fishing grounds, 

 such as the South Pacific.-* France also maintains a 

 separate 1972 fisheries treaty with Canada which 

 governs the activities of French vessels based in St. 

 Pierre and Miquelon in Canadian Atlantic waters. 

 French flagged vessels are entitled to quotas in these 

 waters, though relations with Canada have been 

 strained due to allegations of overfishing by St. 

 Pierre vessels. France is also prominent in shrimp 

 fishing in French Guiana in South America and is 

 involved in the fisheries of several Pacific island 

 nations, many of which were once French territories. 



7. Fleet Dispersal Plans 



French owners of the Commandant Gue, a large 

 factory stem trawler that once fished off 

 Newfoundland, attempted to use the vessel as a 

 floating factoryship to support catches made by 

 Vietnamese vessels inside Vietnam's 200 mile limit." 

 The operation apparently did not succeed and the 

 Commandant Gue has since returned to France. The 

 owners previously unsuccessfully attempted to use the 

 vessel to process blue whiting into surimi in the north 

 Atlantic. The vessel might be reconfigured and sent 

 out to fish off Argentina on a trial basis, since it is 

 one of the few very large trawlers left in the French 

 high-seas fleet. The number of super-trawlers 

 declined from 3 vessels in 1991 to 2 vessels 

 averaging 2,425-GRT in 1992. 



French trawlers are also involved in many of the 

 countries where EC vessels are permitted to fish 

 under bilateral agreements negotiated by the EC. 

 These include many shrimp trawlers, lobster boats. 



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