Jersey fishermen today started giving away their lobster hauls for free as the dispute over fishing rights with France escalated.
France issued a legal notice to British fishermen last night that they were no longer welcome into French ports after one Jersey boat was threatened with violence and turned back.
Fishermen at St Helier Port, which was blockaded by French rivals this week, said they had been left in a vicious cycle due to the dispute.
Gary Maranet, 33, skipper of a 26-foot boat, began emptying his lobster pots and giving the expensive fish away to the public.
He said: ‘Jersey fishermen like me are stuck and in a dead end.
âMy grandad was a fisherman, my dad was a fisherman. Itâs in the family. Iâve started to think to myself, would I have been better off staying at school and getting a trade behind me. Itâs a sticky one.â
He reckons the profit from his catches has been down 30% this year on the average for the last few. Thatâs a big chunk of your money,â he said. âIâm just about covering my costs.
âI havenât landed this year in France. Last year, it was once every seven or 10 days. Itâs hard to say whatâs going to happen. I wasnât for Brexit but now Iâd like France to exit the EU â then Jersey and France would be able to work it out themselves. I just hope there is a fishing industry left after this.â