Seafood Champions

AGLIA - 2008 Seafood Champion

The Association du Grand Littoral Atlantique (AGLIA) is a multi-regional association (founded in 1988) grouping the Regional Councils as well as fish industry and sea farming professionals from the French Atlantic coast: Brittany, Pays de la Loire, Poitou-Charentes, Aquitaine. AGLIA's objective is to promote fishing and aquaculture-related activities in the Biscayne Bay. The studies conducted by AGLIA aim at making fishing and aquacultural activities perennial while at the same time protecting the resource by fulfilling the professionals' expectations in the most operational way possible. AGLIA's contribution resides in its inter-regional approach: to unite all the stakeholders of our industry in order to better understand and, ultimately, take better actions.

In the Biscayne Bay, langoustine (Nephrop norvegicus) fishing is done exclusively with bottom trawls. While the fishermen naturally target langoustines (from 3 to 12 months a year), they also catch other species which are critical for the economic sustainability of the business, such as hake and cuttlefish.

There are 250 langoustine fishermen involved in the project work in the Biscayne Bay, from the westernmost point of Brittany to the Island of Oléron and where the ships unload their catch in no less than 12 ports along approximately 700 km of coast.

The Association became engaged in the fishery in 2004 by initiating a co-expertise program for developing the involvement of professionals in the management of the stock they live on, together with scientists in charge of the evaluation. At the request of the professionals in 2006, AGLIA designed a program for improving the selectivity for langoustine; this work was the continuation of that conducted in 2002-04 by the CNPMEM on inter-specific selectivity (hake-langoustine).

The current situation is the result of a common and ongoing commitment of CNPMEM, AGLIA and especially local and regional professional representatives striving to improve fishing practices and their regulation since 2002.

In very concrete terms, studies and experiments conducted at sea in 2003-2004 resulted in the obligation for all ships to use hake-specific gear as off 2005 (a compulsory prerequisite for obtaining a fishing license). Similarly, trials performed in 2006-2007 were approved by the fishermen themselves during a general meeting held at the end of October 2007, where the decision to make langoustine-selective gear compulsory from the start of the next season was taken.

According to the project's evaluations and recent results, this should save no less than 14 million small hake (< 27 cm) and 70-120 millions (depending on the year) of under-sized langoustines (< 9cm) annually. Given the economic importance of this species and the genuine motivation for langoustine selectivity which followed, the concern was to further improve this species' recovering status.

Now, with the studies completed, the professionals have shown that they are able to take responsibility as far as management decisions are concerned, and we have initiated our thinking about environmental labeling. This sign will allow to formalize for consumers the commitments made by the fishermen.

At first, fishermen enlisted in the project in order to preserve their fishing rights (like quotas and fishing areas) which were under threat of severe restrictions from the European Commission. Indeed, in the context of the hake emergency plan (2001), the Commission wished to implement drastic restrictions on the langoustine fishermen who were catching small hake in their langoustine fishing areas.

The example of the langoustine fishery has gradually diffused to the regional, national and now European levels; the European Commission and European Parliament have leveraged this approach to illustrate in a more pragmatic fashion the future European politics on waste reduction. A similar initiative is currently under way for a regional fishery (common shrimp) and a dossier is under review for deep water fishing in Western Scotland.

Along the way, AGLIA has developed tight relationships with NGOs such as WWF-France; these exchanges proved very useful and contributed notably to the changes initiated in the fishing industry.

Most of the effort in terms of communication and information was deployed towards the fishermen in order to make this project, which extends on a large geographic scale, become really theirs.

More recently, AGLIA is starting to make the general public (and consumers) aware of the value of the concrete and operational results obtained this far. During an event organized on the quays of the river Seine in Paris in September 2007 ("Breizh sur Seine"), visitors were welcomed on board fishing ships and 4 conferences describing the professionals' accomplishments were held before 500 people. A consumer information leaflet about langoustines, giving details about the stock management methods, is currently being designed.

There was a time when fishermen were living a "hidden life" at sea. In France, they are now discovering that they are accountable for the way they work. This situation is an opportunity to bring about a change of perspective in the professionals' way of thinking, as an incentive rather than in a coercive way (as was the case until now with prohibitions on fishing and other regulations). By recreating the bond between fishermen and consumers via the product, pride in their job may be given back to the former and the pleasure of enjoying products from the sea to the latter.

The challenge is to prove that it is possible to involve people in the improvement of their practices rather than leaving specialists, unaware of the realities of the field, to decide in their stead. This requires more energy and force of persuasion, even if it is clearly more rewarding and above all an approach guaranteeing the appropriate enforcement of the new rules. A well-understood rule is easier to admit and consequently more appropriately implemented; in the end, it is more efficient!

Being a Seafood Champion means a sincere commitment, beyond any direct personal interest, to contribute to the environmental and social mutations expected from the seafood industry in this century. This is a driver for advancing, at our own scale and with our own means, the concept of responsible and sustainable fishing.