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Cormorants are also in the news. Control shootings can resume. What are the first results?
Some federations have managed to obtain the by-laws, but not enough for my taste. It's clear that there's some reluctance on the part of local authorities. They're afraid that the bylaws will be attacked. The FNPF management and I are fighting non-stop, and next week we're going to ask the Minister to try and influence the government departments in the départements, to try and make things easier for us. Even if the Ministry sends notes to the DDTs, the civil servants are still a little reticent. Things are moving forward, little by little, we're continuing, we're pushing hard, we're not giving up.
Another subject that has been debated by the fishing world for years, and which has recently come back into the spotlight, is night fishing. With, for example, the creation of specific routes. Are you in favor of this?
There have already been meetings on this subject. As you know, I'm trying to make it easier to regulate recreational fishing, because there are already too many regulations in France. We also need to stop bothering the fisherman. And we have to stop shooting ourselves in the foot. Every time we want something done, there's always someone in our own network saying "ah but here we have to protect...". If you want to go fishing today, you need a huge guidebook to read all the regulations, here you need one option, there another, here it's authorized, there it's forbidden... And then you're surprised that people are turning to private fishing. I'm open to night fishing, I'm open to anything that makes fishing easier. But then again, sometimes it's not the authorities that get in the way. We block ourselves.
Simplifying regulations was one of the arguments put forward by the president of the Tarn-et-Garonne fishing federation which now authorizes carnivore fishing during the pike closure as in Aveyron. Would you be in favor of a generalized opening, or would it be necessary to modify the Environment Code?
It can be modified, but as long as there's a text saying that the prefect can modify the rule, it's possible. I'm ready to look at everything. I have no taboos on that. But if we generalize this, some federations will say they don't agree. You can bet on that. There will be opposition. But I'm sticking to the general idea, and you have to look at it this way, that anything that makes fishing easier and promotes it, I'm in favor of. And I'll continue to do so.
Thanks to Claude Roustan for taking the time to answer the questions that many fishing enthusiasts have.
