The ‘scallop wars’ have escalated as a British ship is accused of an attack on a French counterpart.
Officials in France claim the British vessel deliberately cut one of the French trawler’s cables on the morning of January 15 between Brighton and Dieppe.
There are concerns that this will cause an escalation in the conflict, given the mutual history of accusations of trespassing and regulation breaking.
The British ship, Henk Senior, is accused of passing the French, Rose de Cascia, in English waters and a member of the crew throwing a grappling hook to pull off the French’s net.
Etienne Dachicourt, the co-owner of the French trawler, told Ici Nord: “There have always been intimidating manoeuvres. We’ve been warning since Brexit that there would be problems of cohabitation in the English Channel. But you don’t put people’s lives at risk.”
The fisherman went on to note what might have happened if the trawler had “flipped over” – the crew would have been lost and six people would have died.
Other French officials like Xavier Bertrand, head of the Hauts-de-France region, dubbed the events an “exceptionally serious incident”.
The Rose de Cascia is reportedly back fishing in UK waters while the Henk Senior is in the Dutch port of Vlissingen, according to La Voix du Nord.
This comes after many allegations of attacks, with boats reportedly rammed against one another and fishermen throwing rocks and projectiles.
There have been other scuffles in 2014 and 2010 over the fact British scallopers were allowed to fish year-round but the French were not permitted to between May and October.
A brief blockade of Jersey was carried out by French fishing boats in 2021 to protest their loss of fishing licences in the wake of Brexit.
