French boats stage protest off Jersey

A fleet of French fishing boats converged on the island of Jersey to protest on Thursday, amid an escalating row over post-Brexit fishing rights.

About 50 boats sailed to the Channel island to express their dismay.

In recent weeks, tensions have increased between Paris and London as French fishermen say they are being prevented from operating in British waters due to complications in obtaining licenses.

Fisherman said they spoke to local officials and had made their point before heading home.

'This is not a blockade' 

The fishermen did not stop local fishing vessels from operating nor block access to the port, according to the Normandy regional fishing committee, which helped organize the protest. 

"The objective is to express our unhappiness about the restrictive measures that were imposed," the representative, Hugo Lehuby, told Reuters by telephone. "This is not a blockade," he added. 

AFP news agency quoted another fisherman as saying "it's a peaceful protest."

Banners and messages were visible on some of the fishing boats, which approached the harbor for a few minutes in the early morning before turning away. Two Jersey boats joined the demonstration, according to the Jersey Evening Post.

Navy ships deployed 

The British government had sent two Navy patrol ships to monitor the situation on Jersey amid concerns that the planned demonstration would blockade the port.

While the British naval vessels observed the protest from a distance, France sent two Navy ships to waters near Jersey in a tit-for-tat move, French media reported. 

France "won't be intimidated" by the deployment of British Navy ships, France's European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune told AFP on Thursday.

AFP cited a spokesperson for the coast guard on the Channel as saying that one of the French boats was a gendarme police vessel and the other a maritime administration patrol boat.  

Calls for political action

Dimitri Rogoff, president of the Normandy fishing committee, told AFP news agency that "the show of force is over, now it's politics that has to pick up the baton."

He called on the French government to step in and retaliate if necessary.

Fisherman Ludovic Lazaro said Jersey officials "are sticking to their positions" after his colleagues met with local authorities.

"Now it's down to the ministers to find an agreement. We are not going to be able to do much," he said.

What is the fishing row?

Jersey had implemented new rules requiring fishermen to submit their past fishing activities to receive a license to continue operating in its waters. 

Last week, Britain granted fishing authorization to 41 French ships with unilaterally imposed conditions, including the time French vessels could spend in its waters.

French Maritime Minister Annick Girardin said that Paris was ready to take "retaliatory measures" if necessary. 

France raised the prospect of cutting off electricity to the island, a move that British officials said was "completely unjustified.''

Jersey and the other Channel Islands are closer to France than to Britain. The island receives most of its electricity from France. 

Fishing rights and access to each other's waters proved an emotive issue both in the Brexit campaign, and later in the negotiations between the UK and the EU.

aw, fb/msh (AFP, Reuters)