Aurelien Masson, like most fisherman in the fewer than 10 per cent of Brittany boats that still use wide-mesh surface nets, blames the trend for worrisome declines in everyone's catch. They take the young along with the mature. They get species at the wrong time. Sure, they throw stuff back in, but by then it is usually dead. Also, he adds, trawler catches are so large that freshness suffers.
Fish stay too long on ice or have to be frozen before reaching the consumer.
Trawlermen acknowledge some damage to undersea environment, but they argue this corrects itself. Their advantage is efficiency, they say. Fewer workers can feed more people, even if that means some frozen fish. If too many people do it wrong, we all pay the price. Already, it's getting much harder.