Recycling 20 tonnes of used fishing nets each year: Cepralmar d’Occitanie wins a star

Regional Councillor for the Mediterranean Christophe Manas (right) represented Cepralmar in Lorient on Thursday 20 June. MIDI LIBRE – Yan.Phi.

The Cepralmar project, a centre for the study of marine cultures and an offshoot of the Region, has been awarded a prize by the European Fisheries Fund. It involves recycling dozens of tonnes of used nets.

Occitanie was rewarded, Thursday June 20, during the first edition of the stars of the Feamp (European Maritime and Fisheries Fund) which supports innovative, local projects, supporting the energy transition or environmental protection.

For this last category, Cepralmar, the region's satellite study center, was honored with a star. Its project: the recycling of fishing nets, in the four ports of Occitanie, (Grau du Roi, Sète, Grau d'Agde and Port-La-Nouvelle). The study identified an annual deposit of 20 tonnes of used fishing nets.

"We have the second fishing fleet in France" recalled Christophe Manas, regional advisor delegated to the Mediterranean during the award ceremony, at the national sea conference in Lorient .

"Enabling local and inclusive employment"

"This project will enable local and inclusive employment, promote the short circuit and reduce the costs of processing these waste nets for ports ."

At each of the four ports, a space will allow used nets to be temporarily stored. They will then be processed by a local integration company and then massed near Narbonne before shipment to Fil & Fab, the recycler, in Brest, who will make glasses or others.

The effective collection of used fishing nets must begin at the end of 2024, first on small looms, "then on trawlers in a second phase& quot; specifies Christophe Manas.

For its other stars, the Feamp, which manages a global envelope of 600 M€ dedicated to local projects, honored a company with a star which installs solar panels on fishing boats or the federation of baskets of the sea which redistributes each year 300 tonnes of fish not distributed due to unsold.