Laurent Virapoullé’s Pêche Avenir shipping company obtained a quota of 17 tonnes of lobsters from the Taaf administration, to fish in the waters of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam Islands by March 31, end date of the 2021-2022 campaign. This decision does not modify Sapmer's quota, the historical operator of this fishery, which remains fixed at 383 tonnes as during the previous campaign. The decision of the French Southern and Antarctic Lands still raised concerns among the crew of the Austral, the Sapmer boat specialized in this trap fishing. The same day the order was signed, February 1st, sailors and their union demonstrated their discontent on the port docks, fearing the “social consequences, economic and environmental » of the opening of the fishery to competition, a first in half a century. Sapmer believes that the small size (24 meters) of the Pêche Avenir boat is not compatible with the extreme conditions often encountered in southern waters, and fears the consequences on resource management of the arrival of new boats in the waters of Saint-Paul and Amsterdam, as was the case in the 1970s.
