[ad_1]
Suddenly, a touch of sailor romance fills the understated linoleum-floored office room. “My grandfather and my father were already fishing there,” says Bruno Margolle, a vivacious 61-year-old with a gold chain on his arm. The head of the fishing cooperative in Boulogne-sur-Mer took out his mobile phone and opened an app that can be used to track the route of the boats. The “Nicolas Jeremy”, the trawler he bought almost twenty years ago and in which his son is now going to sea, is in the English Channel off the south coast of England, in British waters.
If Boris Johnson has his way, this should end in the future. The British Prime Minister is determined to deliver on one of the biggest promises that Brexiters and himself made to the British in their election campaign: the UK wants to regain sovereignty over its waters. “Our sea, our fish” is their motto.
For Margolle and the fishermen of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Johnson’s promise is a challenge. Boulogne’s vessels harvest salmon from the sea off the coast of Scotland, fish for mackerel near Hull and haddock in the English Channel. “This access,” says Margolle, “is vital for us.” On average, 60 percent of the catch by French fishermen comes from British waters.
