This is annoying, if they go and catch all they want what will their children catch? Are they that bloody stupid?




A blockade by French fishermen angry at EU quotas cut ferry links with Britain for a second day Wednesday as a union official threatened to block the Channel Tunnel in support of the movement.

A fleet of independent fishermen, who say their livelihood is under threat from European Union limits on their catch, has stopped ships entering or leaving the ports of Calais, Boulogne and Dunkirk since Tuesday.

The Calais protest was lifted overnight due to rough weather, allowing some ferries to cross to and from Dover, but a 100-strong flotilla of fishing boats resumed the blockade of all three harbours on Wednesday morning.

All cross-Channel ferry and freight traffic was halted, with port and transport authorities urging car and truck drivers to delay their journey or choose an alternative route.

A fishermen's delegation was to hold talks with Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Michel Barnier in Paris Wednesday at 7:00 pm in an attempt to break the deadlock, ministry officials said.

But there were threats of more serious disruption in coming days as workers at French ferry company SeaFrance threatened to block access to the Channel Tunnel out of "solidarity" with the fishermen.

"If they reach no deal with the government and if the port is still blockaded, we'll go and block the tunnel on Thursday morning, until there is a deal," said a CFDT union leader at the firm, Eric Verckourtre.

Ferry company P&O said it was preparing to seek compensation from French authorities over business lost due to the blockade -- which it said was costing it a million pounds a day.

P&O said it cleared a backlog of around 3,000 passengers stuck in Dover and Calais overnight before the blockade resumed, but hundreds more people were set to descend on Dover during the day.

The blockade caused major road disruption in Kent where police were parking trucks on the hard shoulder of the main highway from London to Dover to ease congestion.

MP Richard Ashworth urged fishermen to call off the protest.

"Every time the French blockade a port it makes our lives across southeast England miserable -- that's why the French do it," Ashworth said.

"It is not fair for French fishermen to take out their frustrations on us and turn the M20 into a lorry park."

Calais, Dunkirk and Boulogne are separated from England by the 21-mile Straits of Dover, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

Fishermen are blocking the Channel to push for a review of annual EU fishing quotas, which they claim are forcing them out of work.

Both Paris and the European Union have ruled out any renegotiation of quotas, pointing out that French cod quotas have already been boosted 30 percent since last year.

The agriculture minister has said he is ready discuss financial aid instead.

But local fleet owners, many of whom have already exceeded their quota for cod and sole for the first six months of 2009, say they were not looking for government handouts.

"We don't want public money, we want to work," said Jacques Pinto, leader of the CFDT union in Boulogne, France's leading fishing port in terms of tonnage. "Our job is to catch and sell fish -- and so we need the quotas to do so."

"The blockade continues for now. We will see where we stand after the meeting."

Patrick Haezebrouck of the CGT union, part of a labour coalition representing the fishermen, accuses the European Union of seeking to destroy small-scale fishing operations by setting unrealistic quotas.

The EU policy of limiting the size of fishing catches aims to stop stocks being wiped out through over-fishing.
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