French trawlermen threaten more clashes with English scallop rivals… after Channel sea battle left Brits demanding ...
FRENCH fishermen who attacked Brit trawlers over scallops today warned the war has only just begun as the UK calls for the Royal Navy to protect our boats.
Five boats were blockaded by 40 French vessels on Tuesday morning who lobbed petrol, smoke bombs and rocks in a two-and-a-half hour fishing rights battle.
The President of the Normandy Regional Fisheries Committee has also waded in - claiming it is becoming "more complicated to talk to the English" because of Brexit.
Dimitri Rogoff said: "We will go out to see the English again soon."
A skipper on one of the French boats caught up in the clash has warned Tuesday"s ordeal could just be the start, with fishermen vowing to put pressure on shops to take British scallops off the shelves.
Anthony Quesnel, captain of La Rose des Vents, told The Times: "If we let them do what they want, they"ll ravage the area.
"We won a battle but we haven"t won the war."
While Stephane Le Francois told Sky News: "If ever they were to come back into our waters, then we will do the same again, but this time with larger numbers.
"We are now much more motivated.
"We won"t use weapons, unlike what some people are saying in England, but we will have other things on board that are a little different. A little less aggressive."
It comes as the director of Whitelink Seafoods, whose boat Georgia Dawn managed to escape unscathed, has called for Navy intervention in the English Channel.
Graeme Sutherland told The Press and Journal: "The reality is it must have been a very scary situation.
“The French authorities should be controlling their own people, but if they can’t do it we should be protected by the Navy.
“If they are going to be unwilling to control their own then surely our government should be protecting us.
"World War Three has broken out" - fisherman"s harrowing account
GEOFFREY Chambers was with his two sons off the coast of Normandy when he was caught up in the clashes. Here, he gives an eyewitness account.
“There were flares going up. There was shouting on the wireless.
"The English boats were shouting for help. They were being surrounded and pelted with stones, metal shackles, they were being shot with flares.
“They [the French] were trying to tow ropes through the propellor to try and disable them. They [the English] were actually shouting for help on the wireless. ‘Can somebody come and help us here’, they were shouting.
“The two wee boats finally got clear, but one of the wheelhouse windows got broke. They were throwing stones at them, bottles, bottles of oil, and shooting flares that could have landed directly in the oil and ignited in the flames."
As told to Belfast Newsletter.
“We are just trying to go about our jobs and these guys are getting threats and everything thrown at them.
“Throwing things out at sea is a different game all together. You just escalate everything right up.
“It is a very, very dangerous situation.”
Seven crew members on board the 90ft Honeybourne III feared being torched or sunk or in the violent battle.
One sailor, named only as Stuart, was woken by the shout: “Boys, we need help! The French are attacking us!”
FACEBOOK/OLIVER HUGHES
Wayne Perry - The Sun
He said: “There was smoke everywhere. We were sitting ducks and were hit first. You couldn’t go on deck. They could have sunk us.”
The trawler, from Shoreham, West Sussex, lost £600 of catch as it broke the blockade in international waters.
Another Brit boat had fire damage from a flare. The row is because the French can fish only from October to May while Brits face no curbs.
Barrie Deas, chief executive of Britain"s National Federation of Fishermen"s Organisations, said: "We have raised the matter with the British government and asked for protection for our vessels.”
PA:Press Association
PA:Press Association/PA Images
Wayne Perry - The Sun
Environment Secretary Michael Gove has called on the French authorities to look after British crews.
He said: "My heart goes out to the British fishermen who were caught up in the terrible scenes that we saw happen earlier this week.
"They were fishing entirely legally, they had every right to be in those waters and we talked to the French authorities in order to ensure that we have a protocol.
"These are French waters – it’s the responsibility of the French to ensure that those who have a legal right to fish can continue to fish uninterrupted.”
But leaked messages from a Tory WhatsApp group show MPs are fuming over the cross-channel spat and say they Gove is being "weak" and letting them down, Telegraph reports.
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Owen Paterson, a Eurosceptic Tory MP, said on a Whatsapp group of Eurosceptic Tory MPs: "Our boats would not have to go over to French waters if they had fair access to our own.
"We should chuck Chequers [the Prime Minister"s Brexit deal] and establish our full control of our EEZ [British waters] out to 200miles.
"We should then start managing our waters properly learning from competent maritime nations."
Sherryl Murray, the Conservative MP for South East Cornwall who lost her husband in a fishing accident, said: "I completely agree Owen. We should not be starting at relative stability and gradually increasing UK share.
"Whatever are Michael and George thinking about? They are showing weakness. Their proposal is not taking back control. I feel badly let down."
The Sun Says
THE terror inflicted on our fishermen by French thugs is an international outrage. So is the French navy turning a blind eye.
How can they have seen nothing amiss as Molotov cocktails, smoke bombs and rocks rained down on British boats?
Our men could have been killed. Yet they have every right to fish for scallops there, as French authorities admit.
If France’s navy won’t keep them safe, ours must be sent in to do so.
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