France has seized a UK boat and fined another one due to the burning issue of fishing rights. According to the French minister, Annick Girardin, they cautioned the ships overnight during checks off Le Havre.
She said the first did not immediately follow regulations, while the second was prevented from fishing in French waters and detained.
The UK government confirmed that it is “closely monitoring” the situation and that officials are “urgently looking into” reports of French regulatory activity.
French threats to prevent British boats from docking at French ports are “disappointing,” according to the UK’s Brexit Minister Lord Frost.
One of the British trawlermen, according to one of Ms. Girardin’s tweets, was apprehended fishing in the Bay of Seine without the required permissions.
The boat was taken to the port of Le Havre and halted by the judicial authorities, where their catch might be seized and the boat detained until a deposit is paid, according to her.
Cornelis Gert Jan is the boat detailed by France. It usually operates into and out of the port of Shoreham, in Hampshire. And MacDuff Shellfish of Scotland operates it.
The MacDuff Shellfish fishing company said its activity was “completely legal” and the ship was “legally harvesting scallops in French waters” when it was detained by officials.
The company said it would defend itself against any allegations and that its boat was only “another pawn” in the continuing France-UK fishing dispute, calling on the UK government to “defend the rights of the UK fishing fleet.”
During the scallop fishing season, the fisheries minister announced that inspections on British ships are routine.
But she emphasized that they had been done “in the light of the tightening of restrictions in the Channel, as part of talks on licenses with the United Kingdom and the European Commission.”