The French Government was delighted when the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) accepted our proposal that this Technical Consultation be organized in our country. In the first place, I should like to welcome Mr Lucas, Assistant Director-General (Fisheries) of FAO, who is representing this United Nations Agency, and would ask him to convey our thanks to Mr Saouma and our regrets that he is not with us today.
I wish to thank and congratulate the foreign members of the Organizing Committee who have worked for several years to organize this important international meeting: Mr Tuomi (Canada), Mr Steinmetz (Netherlands), Mr Hooper (USA) and the key officials of this organization; Mr Jean-Louis Gaudet, Secretary of the European Inland Fisheries Advisory Commission, and Mr R.L. Welcomme, Technical Secretary of this Commission. My own collaborators contributed to the work of this organising committee. That was quite normal. I should also like to congratulate the Rapporteurs of this Technical Consultation who had to carry out the processing work, which was far from easy; besides Mr Tuomi, who was really overworked, I wish to congratulate Mr Norling (Sweden) and Mr Gottschalk (USA). France is also participating since the Director of the Department for the Conservation of Nature will draw up the conclusions of this Consultation and the “Conseil Supérieur de la Pêche” (CSP) (Higher Council of Fisheries) supplied one of the Rapporteurs, Mr Cuinat, who is responsible for fishery activities in this region.
The presence among us of Mr Lacarin, Mayor of Vichy, who welcomed us to this world-famous watering town, is much appreciated, as well as that of Mr Martini, President of the Union of Fishery Federations with whom I have had very cordial relations over the past two years.
May I now refer to the title of this consultation. I should like to translate it into simpler and more concreta terms. In fact, the point at issue as far as the majority of fishermen are concerned is the most effective management of fishery resources in the rivers and lakes of our respective countries. We must bear in mind that realities of the situation: the production potential has a limit sat by the fundamental rules of biology. On the other side of the scales are the recipients of this production potential who are considerable in numbers and importance: there is the majority of sport fishermen for whom fishing provides a relaxation and high quality products for their own consumption; there are also the less numerous fishermen who get an income from fishing and have to procure more extensive equipment. If we are to avoid conflicts developing between all these users of the same resource, our fishery sector must be managed in such a way that catches are compatible with production and spread out equitably among all the beneficiaries.
This presupposes extensive efforts to maintain and above all improve the quality of the water of our rivers, but there should also be an effective organization of fisheries, well adapted to the environment. I think this is the case in France and I should like to point out to you the main characteristics. First of all, we must remember that our country has a very vast fishing area; 125 000 km of water courses more than 1 m wide; 150 000 km of streams measuring between 0.5 m and 1 m; over 240 000 ha of lakes and ponds, to which about 4 million fishermen have access and which produce 24 000 t of fish.
There is a clear-cut administrative and legal distinction in our country between the fresh water sector (lakes and rivers) and the marine sector. I personally am responsible for the fresh water areas including the estuaries, up to the administrative boundary of the salt water sector. Beyond that boundary one comes to the marine fisheries sector for which my colleague in the Ministry of Transport is responsible. This distinction is not so clear-cut in other countries. You know too that in our country river fishing does not come under the Ministry of Agriculture, as is sometimes the case elsewhere, but under the Ministry of the Environment. I leave it to you to discuss this point during your consultation.
France is a country with long-established legal traditions as regards fisheries. Royal edicts and decrees regarding fisheries have in fact imposed since the end of the thirteenth century the application of a number of police regulations with a view to the conservation of fish, such as prohibiting fishing during certain periods of the year with certain gear.
All these texts have been codified a first time in the 1669 Decree on Water and Forests promulgated under the regime of King Louis XIV. The laws of the revolutionary period (1789– 1793) took away from the aristocracy the fishing rights they had under the feudal system. The law of the 14 Floreal1 year X gave back to the State the fishing rights on navigable rivers and a notice of the Council of State of the 30 Pluviose2 year XII made fishing rights subordinate to land ownership rights. Since than this legal situation has remained fundamentally the same; the fishing right belongs to the State on state-owned water courses; it belongs to the riparian owners on non-state water courses.
1 Floreal = eighth month of the French Republican Calendar (April–May)
2 Pluviose = fifth month of the French Republican Calendar (January–February)
Fishery management in France and the development of the national fish farming sector have one original feature which may be drawn to your attention; they are the joint responsibility of the Administration and fishermen's groups whose concern it is to take action in unison. French fisheries are based on an associative structure. Every hand-liner has to belong to an approved fishery or fish farming association. These associations are grouped in departmental federations which are themselves members of a National Union presided over effectively and competently by President Martini, whose presence among us I drew attention to just now. The “Association de pêche et de pisciculture” (APP) (Fishing and Fish Farming Association) recognized by the Prefect, plays a necessary and essential role, the more so as it is located as near as possible to the rivers, lakes or ponds where fishing is practised. It can deal with such important questions as environmental monitoring, fry rearing, fish farming development, or instituting a civil action for damages. The departmental Federation, to which all associations of the department are obliged to belong, is another cooperative at a secondary level, offering more possibilities since it has greater resources.
With a membership of from 40 000 to 50 000 fishermen, it is the Federation which normally negotiates with the State authorities and coordinates all fish farming activities. The departmental federations conduct restocking operations, rent important fishing lots, participate in the detection of pollution and research into its causes, monitor the water course with CSP fishery service vessels or with their own vessels and, more generally, make all the investments which seem necessary in the interests of the fisherman. I would also add that there is in France a federation of fishermen who practise fishing with hand-lines or fishing gear, the membership of which is much lower (15 000) than that of the departmental federations (2 600 000 members). The economic role of some of these fishermen is essential, above all in the lakes and estuaries, and I believe this is a fact which is central to your discussions here.
Lastly, at the top, one finds an instrument serving jointly the Administration and all fishermen using hand-lines or fishing gear; the CSP. This is a financially autonomous public establishment managed by a CA (Administrative Council?) on which the State representatives and fishermen's representatives are equally represented. Each fisherman who practises his sport or his activity must pay a fishery tax collected by the associations and federations, which supplies the entire budget of the CSP and serves in particular to pay about 600 fishery service vessels.
All this organization, which in practice dates back more than 30 years, has proved its worth. But although the structures work well, it is nevertheless continually necessary to set objectives compatible with the maintenance of our fishery resources. I told you just now that France was a country with a long-established legal tradition and this is particularly true in the fishery sector, which is characterized by abundant and varied regulations, dealing profusely with the classification of water courses, fishing regulations, the size of the fish and their marketing conditions, their protection, fishing methods, etc. My present concern is to simplify these texts but it is a long and exacting task. All the fishermen present here today know that a draft law providing for some simplification and enabling fish protection measures to be reinforced has been presented by the Government and I hope that it may soon be discussed. This brings me back to the subject of your consultation. It is absolutely essential to protect the fish-breeding and fishery potential of the rivers and lakes of our respective countries and this concerns all of us; we must pool our experiences in order to conserve the genetic patrimony of some particularly threatened migratory species I am thinking in particular of salmon, on behalf of which France has for several years made very considerable efforts. The large quantity of salmon which have been ascending the rivers this year is a great encouragement for us and I think this is thanks to all those who have participated in implementing the State-financed “salmon scheme”.
France has also for several years now been conducting a comprehensive pollution control policy and it is now increasingly possible to gauge its effects. A few weeks ago I was taking stock of the action of watershed authorities from which it appeared that the pollution in our rivers has decreased by about 5 percent a year during recent years, whereas the growth of industrial development should have caused it to increase. Large areas such as the Lake of Annecy or the Pond of Berre have regained in a few years a quality of water which they had lost.
I am sure that among the many fishermen here today many could indicate this or that river where fish species which were no longer to be seen have reappeared. Of course, I do not wish to say that everything is perfect in the best of worlds, but, on the contrary, that these results which are increasingly visible may be an incentive to the Government, local communities, industrialists and of course the fishermen to pursue the action now engaged to regain the former quality or our waters. Nor is it sufficient to control pollution. A decision must also be taken regarding the different possible uses of the waters. I think this will be one of the essential topics of your consultation. For my part, I am fairly optimistic and I think that a more intensive use of the waters can be reconciled with the protection requirements of the aquatic enviornment. Precautions must be taken and it is up to the impact studies which have been obligatory in France since 1978 to lead contractors to reflect on the consequences of the engineering works planned and take the necessary compensatory measures. Lastly, the fishery resources must be distributed in the best interests of all fishermen, amateurs and professionals, by using only the annual income without touching the capital. The fish collection of the past should now become the rational management of fishery resources. This is a subject which is being dealt with for the first time at the intergovernmental level. I shall ask the Director of the Department for the Protection of Nature to make me a detailed report on the specific suggestions made to the various Governments.
That will be particularly useful for us all, since I have no doubt that from the meeting of so many eminent specialists from all countries very interesting recommendations will emerge.
