On the night of Tuesday January 14 to Wednesday January 15, the trawler “Rose de Cascia”, based at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, was attacked by a British fishing boat off the French coast. Alarming facts which illustrate a tense climate between French and British fishermen since Brexit in 2020.
An air of naval warfare in the Channel… A French trawler was dragged during the night of Tuesday January 14 to Wednesday January 15 by a British fishing boat which cut the cable connecting it to its net. It is an incident of “exceptional gravity”, declared Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Hauts-de-France region, after the events.
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“These are things that we have been denouncing since Brexit”
While the “Rose de Cascia”, based at the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, was casting its net into English waters, British fishermen launched a grappling hook which caught on the cable connecting the French boat and his net. The trawler was then pulled, dragged back by the British ship, before the cable, reassembled, was cut with a grinder by the English sailors. No injuries, but a huge scare, explained shipowner Étienne Dachicourt.
-“The intention of the English boat was to destroy the fishing gear of the French boat,” he said. “These are things that we have been denouncing since Brexit on the fact that there are going to be problems of cohabitation in the Channel which has a very limited space and where there are more and more ships,” he explains. -he. In the midst of renegotiation in the post-Brexit context, “we feel very clearly that there is a desire among English fishermen to get the French out of English waters”.
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While a complaint was filed by the shipowner this Friday for endangering the lives of others, Xavier Bertrand, the president of the Hauts-de-France region, is calling for an in-depth investigation and denouncing an incident of exceptional gravity.
