After the fleet exit plan, towards a clearing for Sète fishing

“Les quantités de sardines et d’anchois sont là, mais ces poissons ne grossissent pas.” Midi Libre – JEAN-MICHEL MART

De nouveaux chalutiers sont arrivés sur le port de Sète. Mais le poisson bleu se fait attendre.

"She straightens the course." This is the encouraging observation noted by the prud’homie regarding Sète fishing. Indeed, the profession welcomes new arrivals among the trawlers of the second largest port in the Mediterranean for 2024. "Two new trawlers have just arrived from Marseille, we now have eleven active trawlers and two others on administrative hold", confides José Llinarès , advisor to the industrial tribunal and former director of the fishing port.

"We see more clearly"

"We can see a little more clearly", he estimates, while 2023 was marked by a painful fleet exit plan linked to the reduction of quotas at European level (25% of the fleet broken in 2023 as part of the WestMed plan). The auction was also impacted in 2023 with a drop in turnover of 13%. However, for 2024, the forecasts seem more optimistic with a turnover reaching 40,000 euros. per day, with 8 tonnes produced and sold daily at auction. Including octopus remains the first Sète product sold in volume, then sea bream and monkfish. The auction calls on fisheries outside the sector to maintain its balance.

What solutions for blue fish ?

"There, where we wait for answers, it’is on the blue fish", worries José Llinarès. This type of fishing has completely disappeared from Sète for three years. "The quantities of sardines and anchovies are there, but these fish are not growing." Local fishermen had to make do with size 4. In other words, it took between 36 and 91 pieces to have one kilo while size 1 in "provided" < /em>less than 15. Fishing for blue fish was therefore no longer profitable.