Question 16822 — aquaculture and professional fishing

Summary

Mr. Bartolomé Lenoir draws the attention of the Minister of Ecological Transition, Biodiversity and International Negotiations on Climate and Nature to the worrying situation generated by the protection status enjoyed by the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) across all French inland waters. The National Fishing Federation in France (FNPF), the departmental federations, the approved associations of fishing and protection of the aquatic environment (AAPPMA), unions of pond owners, fish farmers as well as all professionals whose activity is directly impacted by the predation exerted by this species report considerable fish damage. The great cormorant population has experienced significant growth in recent decades, well beyond the coastal areas which historically justified its protection. The available scientific data confirms that populations of this species can no longer be considered to be in decline. Their conservation status now appears favorable over a large part of their range, which leads many stakeholders to question the relevance of maintaining the current level of protection. The consequences on the sector are multiple and documented: losses significant financial losses for fish farms, closures of establishments, destruction of jobs in the fishing and fishing tourism sectors, and irreversible damage to the fish biodiversity of rivers and inland water bodies. These impacts are particularly sensitive in rural departments such as Creuse, where recreational fishing and fish farming constitute economic and structuring tourism. At the European level, during the last “Agriculture and Fisheries” Council (AGRIFISH), several Member States called on the European Commission to re-examine the management methods for the great cormorant. Some have called for a review of its protection status in order to allow management more adapted to the realities on the ground, while others have called for the development of a real European plan for the management of the species. This dynamic reflects a growing awareness at the community level. At the national level, France recently changed its regulations by authorizing, under certain conditions, regulatory operations on open waters, a development long awaited by managers of aquatic environments. This progress, however, remains limited by the cumbersome administrative procedures governing the requests for exemption, the level of justification required for which often appears disproportionate to the damage observed on the ground. A simplification of these procedures, accompanied by a strengthening of the legal certainty of prefectural decrees, would allow more effective implementation of these regulations, while guaranteeing compliance with the protection requirements of the species. Faced with this situation, the mobilization of actors in the sector are organizing at the national level, with calls to demonstrate in front of prefectures and requests for the reclassification of the great cormorant as game on all inland waters. Consequently, he asks what measures the Government intends to take to adapt the protection regime for this species to the reality of its current presence on internal waters, in order to reconcile the preservation of the biodiversity with the economic viability of the fishing industry and the protection of fish ecosystems; and whether it plans to initiate a simplification of exemption procedures in order to facilitate the effective implementation of authorized regulatory operations.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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