British and French fishing groups will hold talks Wednesday to avert new clashes between their vessels, after tensions flared last week in scallop-rich waters near Normandy and as Brexit looms on the horizon.
The meeting in London, facilitated and attended by government officials from both sides, will see scallop industry leaders discuss access to stocks of the pricey delicacy in the Seine Bay.
"We're going to have to work on this, because this situation cannot continue," French Agriculture Minister Stephane Travert told CNews television on Tuesday.
"We can't have clashes like this," he said, calling for the "sustainable and efficient management of scallop stocks".
Tensions boiled over last Tuesday when five British vessels sparred with dozens of French boats in the sensitive area, with video footage showing fishermen from both sides ramming each other.
The latest skirmish in the long-running so-called "Scallops Wars" has led to France placing its navy on standby to deal with any further confrontations.
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It comes as Britain prepares to leave the European Union -- and its common fisheries policy which sets catch quotas and other restrictions for member states -- next March.
With British fishermen heavy backers of Brexit, "we must recognise that tensions are reviving," added Travert, who warned the industry should not be used as a bargaining chip between London and Brussels.
"We want a global accord, and do not want to see fishing treated separately, because fishing should not be a variable for adjusting Brexit," he said.
Last week's clashes around 12 nautical miles off the French coast were the most serious in years of wrangling over the area's scallops.
French fishermen are incensed that British boats are accessing the fertile waters, while their government limits fishing there to between October and May to allow stocks to replenish.
Deals struck previously exempted British boats less than 15 metres long from the restrictions, a loophole French fishermen want to see closed and which led to deadlock in reaching an agreement this year.
"It has always been planned with the English that we manage the scallops together but there's been an increase in their fishing," said Normandy fishing chief Dimitri Rogoff.
The latest British government statistics show a marked drop in recent years in overall scallop landings by UK vessels, from 58,100 tonnes in 2012 to 38,900 tonnes in 2016.
But Rogoff added the Seine Bay was an "essential" area for the French which must be protected.
"We will not move an iota," he told AFP on Tuesday, predicting his negotiating entourage would be "intransigent" in the talks.
"All of the (UK) flotilla must be bound by the agreements. "I offer them peace: we share together and there are no more dramas," Rogoff added.
His British counterpart Mike Park, chief executive of the Scottish White Fish Producers Association, was equally bullish.
"We hope to strike a deal but that would be down to the French, because they have rejected the terms we've had in previous years," he said.
Park called demands for a blanket summer ban in the Seine Bay on all boats "a separate discussion" that the French were now making "a central issue".
"If that's what they're trying to achieve, they have to come to the table with some interesting ideas for how to balance that equation," he added.
"You can't have one side giving up everything." Wednesday's meeting, to be held at a British government building, will feature three industry representatives and government officials from France, including its fisheries director, according to Rogoff.
On the British side, the head of the South Western Fish Producers Organisation, will join Park around the negotiating table.
A spokeswoman for Britain's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs confirmed UK officials would also be present but declined to comment further on the talks.
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