“We want to unite fishermen”: the new Sète-Môle industrial tribunal launches its 2025-2028 roadmap

The newly elected: Martial Lubrano (center left), Pierre Palumbo (center right) and Jean-Marie Avallone (left). Bernard Di Maïo was unable to attend. On the left, José Llinarès, advisor to the industrial tribunal. H.A.

The new team of the Sète-Môle industrial tribunal sets its priorities for 2025-2028.

After their election on December 20 for a three-year term, the four industrial tribunals of Sète-Môle, Martial Lubrano (major), Bernard Di Maïo (trawl), Jean-Marie Avallone (tuna boats and longliners) and Pierre Palumbo (small trades) detail their 2025-2028 roadmap. “We have made a 90% change, summarizes Martial Lubrano. We want to reunite the fishermen within the industrial tribunal and restore their confidence.”

1. The revitalized role of the prud’homie

“We are the link between all the segments of fishing on one side and the administrations and elected officials”, reaffirms Martial Lubrano.Whether at the local, national or European level. The prud’homie is a community of fishing skippers that only exists in Mediterranean ports (there are 33). They exercise, under the control of the maritime administration, a plurality of powers: regulatory, disciplinary, police and judicial. In particular, they lay down the rules for the proper organization of the activity and the preservation of the resource.

“We want to work in the interest of all fishermen, in particular by reporting the demands of each segment: trawlers, tuna longliners, small businesses”, he says. The new team wants to reaffirm the central role of the organization with all stakeholders in the sector and the State to defend the future of fishermen in the largest fishing port in the French Mediterranean. It currently has 80 vessels (dozen trawlers, around twenty tuna boats and around thirty small crafts). Working groups will be set up by segment and memberships will be relaunched.

2. The defense of trawler fishing

“This is the first link in the chain. If we lose the trawling activity, we lose the auction and all segments will be affected, recalls Martial Lubrano. Currently, the trawling industry is working below the break-even point. The boats only work 10 to 12 hours a day instead of 15 hours, because they are not allowed to go out before three in the morning and must return before 5 p.m. to have the opportunity to find buyers to sell their fish at the auction”, explains the industrial tribunal major. “If we do the math, that's €30,000 less in turnover per week. So we want to adapt the regulations on departure times to the operation of the port”, continues Martial Lubrano.

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Another point “complex”,the European Westmed plan intended to reduce fishing effort to preserve resources in the Mediterranean, to which the trawling fleet has paid a heavy price in recent years. “We want to make progress in this area and gain ground. We want to recover days at sea and make progress on compensatory measures”, specifies Jean-Marie Avallone . “There is a European political will to stop trawling in the Mediterranean, we want to fight against it”, adds the major industrial tribunal.

3. “Answers” on the blue fish

“We thank Port Sud de France and the Region for the support we received during the port's New Year's greetings (January 16, Editor's note). Didier Codorniou (Vice-President of the Region responsible for the Mediterranean) acknowledged that the problem of blue fish must be addressed (anchovies, sardines, mackerel, etc.), Marial Lubrano believes. “We still don't understand why, for example, sardines are present in large quantities but are no longer growing. We want answers”, adds Jean-Marie Avallone.

Today, pelagic fishing has almost disappeared in Sète, so fishermen are wondering about the causes of these difficulties with the resource. “Elements have been provided in particular by Ifremer, but the issue needs to be investigated further”. The industrial tribunals are demanding the same answers on hake, which is in decline in the Mediterranean, according to the studies that form the basis of the Westmed plan. But they say not all the causes have been identified.

4. New quay for small trades

Among the priority issues for the newly elected prud’homie, the development of the quays dedicated to small crafts, whose vessels number around thirty. “We want to relaunch things that have been on hold for a long time. In particular the project to develop the quay of Cul de Boeuf at the foot of the jetty”. A project eagerly awaited by small-scale fishermen. “We want all the stakeholders to agree, the town hall, the Region and for everyone to keep their commitments”, assures Pierre Palumbo.

The small crafts have signed mooring contracts with specifications as part of the new port parking plan. And to continue: “If we have to harmonize the social and environmental framework, we need to put in place means. We ask that the docks be restructured for the comfort of work, that there be electrical terminals, lifting means for the equipment for example”.

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