Since mid-March, the dismantling of fishing boats has started in Brest. The Navaleo shipyard must deconstruct around fifteen ships as part of the individual support plan (PAI), linked to Brexit. Of the 90 ships retained in the fleet exit plan, half come from Breton ports.
They left Le Guilvinec, their home port, in mid-March after 39 and 32 years of service. This is the last voyage of the Bara Brenn and the Bara Dous, two trawlers from the Bigouden shipping line. Heading for Brest.
The shipbreaking plan emptied the fishing ports of Cornwall and filled the basins of the commercial port.
The profession has demonstrated in recent weeks. Times are tough for fishermen who are suffering from the dismantling of their working tool, with the individual support plan (PAIB), linked to Brexit. Half of the boats retained in the fleet exit plan are Breton. And the impact is particularly significant for Finistère, with the breakage of 25 trawlers for Cornouaille, but also gillnets and pots.
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A few weeks later, two potters from Roscoff set out to join the Brest shipyard Navaleo, which specializes in deconstruction. Aboard the Kreiz ar Mor, skipper Yannick Calvez has a lot on his heart. “In my 30-year career, I’ve seen a bit of everything, the good as well as the best. We’ll try to keep only the good memories, but it’s sad” he laments. “It’s really painful, because I would have preferred to see him continue to sail, but as there was no one to take over from behind, we had no other choice but to destroy him. It’s sad , it’s the end of a story, the end of an era. Now, there will only be two offshore potters left out of the ten that there were before!”
Yannick Calvez’s boat fished crab and brown crab in the Channel, like those of Patrick and Thierry. Accompanied by their wives, they came to say goodbye to their fellow traveler who had just entered the dry dock.
The bosses will receive 750,000 euros from the scrapping plan with which they will pay suppliers and crew compensation.
An opportunity to seize, especially when the resource is lacking. “For us, it’s good, we’re not going to say, remarks Patrick Folloroux, boss of the ‘Ile de Sieck’ pottery. A lot of people say it’s not good, but we’re fine with it because there’s no more crab. And suddenly, it’s hard to find the sailors, because the wages do not follow as for the gillnetters. So to find guys, it was complicated. And then at 53, two years from retirement, and with a boat from 1986, so not brand new either, it’s a choice of reason, that’s how it is!”
In the dry dock, the first excavator hits will be given next week, this Tuesday, May 2. 36,000 euros is the cost of the demolition for a wooden trap at the expense of the fishing bosses. A little less for steel trawlers whose hull is better valued. “These are boats that weigh an average of 150 tons, explains Émile Ferrand, for the site. You will find a large hundred tons of ferrous and non-ferrous metals, steel, aluminum… The steel will be reloaded by boat here on the quay of the port of Brest to go back to foundries in the North of France.”
A way for boats to rise from their ashes, when sailors try to stay the course. Yannick Calvez thus confides that he only kept the bar of the Kreiz ar Mor, with the photos and the memories, he says.
