Nourishing Brittany

First maritime region of France, Brittany has without contest, a card to deal in the tommorow's blue Europe, at an hour when its people are rediscovering the rich heritage of their elders. In the XVth century, the fishermen of Cornouaille were alreading hunting down hake and sardines on the bottom of the Great Mud Bank, supplying the coast and its hinterland, and also Paris, England and Spain.

The Bretons, who are outstanding sailors, have acquired throughout the centuries an incomparable command of the art of navigating. The exploration of the riverside coasts, spiked with rocks and subjected to the influence of currents, has given them, it is true, the occasion to surpass themselves even before they ventured into the unknown. With their adventurous nature, they have tamed the most inhospitable seas, stretching their catch zone, as far as offshore Newfoundland and the Seychelles. At the top of the rank of French fishing, Breton harbours are today still set apart by the variety and the value of their catches. But today, the ships registered in Lorient, Concarneau or Douarnenez are not free to drop their nets outside a Community zone, the limit of which being 200 miles.

Since 1985, industrial and semi-industrial fishing has registered a slowdown in its activity due to the impoverishment of the natural resources and due to the restrictive politics imposed in consequence by Brussels. Only traditional fishing, represented by an important and dynamic flottila, is currently enjoying renewed vitality.

Despite these difficulties, Breton fishermen have not said their last. The former generations were they not also confronted with structural crises ? Their ancestors did they not remedy the shortage of sardines by fishing tuna and lobsters further out to sea ? Famous fro their spirit of venture and their capacity to adapt, Breton fishermen are no doubt capable of reacting, even if the future imposes the importation and transformation of fish. More than any other Atlantic region, Brittany is capable of drawing from its maritime resources a greatly increased exploitational value. Indeed, it alone possesses a potential for research which has also be developed in the oceanographic domain, thanks essentially to the presence of Ifremer, which employs 600 researchers in Brest.

What to visit:
The fishing museum, ville close, Concarneau.
History and ethnology museum in Port-Tudy, Isalnd of Groix.
Sea museum of Paimpol