Sectoral Issues and Environmental Causes: The Mobilization of the French Basque Fishermen after the Sinking of the Prestige

This article analyses the mobilization of French Basque fishermen following the sinking of the oil tanker Prestige off the coast of Galicia (Spain) in 2002. This environmental disaster led to intense political action and bottom-up mobilization in the French Basque region, especially within a profession already undergoing structural changes since the 1990s, partly because of the implementation of the EU Common Fisheries Policy. The Basque fishermen's reactions clearly illustrate the specific stakes and power game at play within the trade. The Prestige disaster occurred at a time of deep changes, if not destabilization, of the sectoral modes of regulation, thus straining relationships between Europe, nations and infra-national bodies. It led to a reorganization of the local institutional order. The management of the crisis also shed light on the paradoxical dimension of a fishing community caught in between solidarity and competitive localism, sectoral interests and environmental issues, unity of the milieu and internal fragmentation. It reopened debate over EU regulations in so far as two competing perceptions of Europeanization were revealed by this crisis — general awareness among professionals of the European dimension in environmental issues vs specific awareness of the EU's extensive regulatory framework for the fishing industry