Sea, coast and fishing

31

Making Brittany a responsible maritime power

Levrig 2027

Trajectory 2027-2032

NB: «For the sake of fluidity and concision, In this text, the masculine is used to encompass all genders.».

The essentials

The sea is both a living environment, a source of food, a space for work, transport, energy, research and sovereignty. Brittany must pursue a unique maritime policy across its five departments, reconciling the prosperity of coastal communities, the renewal of trades and the restoration of ecosystems.

Documented landmark	Situation	Consequence
Vessel-based fishing	Approximately 1,000 vessels and 3,800 fishermen in administrative Brittany	Preserving the diversity of fleets and organizing the renewal
FEAMPA1	More than €14 million programmed and more than €8 million paid. For the 2021-2027 period, its budget is €82.4 million.	Measuring the economic, social and environmental effects of aid
Port governance	Three convergence plaques: Brittany Nord, Cornouaille, Brittany Sud	Building a network without sterile infraregional competition
Maritime Brest	28,000 jobs, 1,800 researchers and 24 research units according to the document submitted	Structuring an international ocean pole and spreading its benefits
Transitions	Decarbonization, selectivity, biodiversity and generational renewal	Financing a progressive and socially sustainable transformation

The main figures relate to the administrative region. The desire for a ‘Zero 2027’ situation must encompass the Loire-Atlantique region and distinguish between fishing, aquaculture, processing, ports, shipbuilding, research, defense, and nautical activities.

1. A Brittany-5 maritime strategy

• Creating a Maritime Conference² Brittany-5 brings together communities, professionals, scientists, employees, associations and elected representatives.
• Adopt a single strategic document linking fisheries, ports, the coastline, energy, transport, biodiversity, research and training.
• Organizing the ports according to the principle of «one port for Brittany, several docks», with specialization, mutualization and coordinated investments.
• Publishing consolidated maritime accounting: budgets, jobs, flows, added value, emissions and environmental status.

Governance that addresses controversies

Yes Breizh rightly noted that CESER reminds us that sustainable fishing is not just a clash between professionals and environmentalists. The decision must be based on discernment, the sharing of knowledge, the exchange of opposing viewpoints, the consistency of policies, and coordinated investment.

2. Fishing: renew without scarring, as Yes Breizh proposes

• Launch a plan for the renewal of ships that prioritizes safety, sobriety, selectivity, versatility, and reparability.
• Creating a financial engineering desk³ (with the Breton banks) for small businesses, installations and transmissions.
• Conditioning aid to verifiable trajectories, without imposing a single technology before maturity.
• Secure revenue during experiments, stopages or conversions when the collective interest is demonstrated.
• Develop the representation of young people, women, crews and small-scale fishing in the institutions.

Balance line for Yes Breizh — Refusing both inaction and general prohibitions without a solution. The impacts vary depending on the fishing gear, zones, species, and seasons; the measures must be proportionate, territorialized, and revisable.

3. Resources, biodiversity and knowledge, what Yes Breizh offers

• Creating a Maritime Observatory Brittany-5⁴ in open data format, compatible with national and European scientific systems.
• Increase the number of fisheries-science programs and the deployment of observers or sensors.
• Defining plans per façade and fishery: stocks, habitats, accidental catches, selectivity, and climate adaptation.
• Evaluate the effects of supertrawlers and bottom trawling by habitat and intensity; experiment with alternative zones, periods and gear before generalizing.
• Include recreational fishing, terrestrial pollution, climate change and urbanization in the analysis of pressures.

4. Ports, creation and local added value, what Yes Breizh offers

• Networking the fish auctions: common information systems, coordinated marketing and mutualized logistics.
• Modernize cold, water, energy, waste treatment, safety, and rail or sail-powered transport links when appropriate.
• Increasing the transformation, filleting, conservation and valorization of by-products in Brittany.
• Develop voluntary traceability based on origin, method, freshness and fair remuneration.
• Reserve a place for local products in collective catering, in compliance with the public procurement law.

5. Responsible aquaculture and algae cultivation

For Yes Breizh, aquaculture can strengthen food sovereignty and diversify coastal areas if it respects the capacity of the environments, animal health, water quality, and local acceptance.

• Simplify procedures through a coordinated single point of contact without lowering environmental requirements.
• Support conchiculture, algae culture, hatcheries, and innovations that limit inputs, mortality, and conflicts over use.
• Publish the health and environmental data of the assisted sites.
• Create a marine-food accelerator involving laboratories, ports, companies and training institutions.

6. Littoral, climate and sharing of space, what Yes Breizh offers

• Establishing resilience contracts by life basin: erosion, submersion, water, habitat, tourism, and primary activities.
• Apply a clear hierarchy: avoid new exposure, adapt, relocate when necessary, and compensate equitably.
• Guarantee public access to the coastline and protect the ecological functions of wetlands, dunes and estuaries.
• Organizing co-operation between fishing and marine renewable energy (MRE) from the planning stage, with accessible data and an independent mechanism for resolving disputes.

7. Marine energy and territorial benefit

For Yes Breizh, Brittany must be able to:

• to make Brest and Lorient industrial bases for floating wind turbines, maintenance and circular dismantling;
• condition the territorial support to local employment, training, subcontracting plans and the protection of biodiversity;
• create a coastal fund funded by a share of the benefits from the projects, allocated to the municipalities and communities concerned according to public rules;
• evaluate separately electricity production, jobs that are actually localized, effects on usage patterns and the ecological state.

8. Training, research and maritime culture

Similarly, for Yes Breizh, Brittany must be able to:

• deploy a Brittany-5 training card and anticipate the needs ten years ahead;
• create maritime scholarships and retraining programs for sailors, technicians and displaced workers;
• to relaunch the project for an international ocean research center around Brest, with the participation of Ifremer, the Shom, the UBO and the schools;
• generalize marine education and marine classes, with priority given to audiences that are remote from them;
• to link science, defense, maritime security and civil innovations, with rules of sovereignty and ethics.

9. Our reflections from across the Channel

• Consider fishing and aquaculture to be the economic backbone of many coastal communities.
• Specifically support small fishing and processing companies.
• Combining the prosperity of the sector with improved protection of the marine environment.
• Maintain an innovation center for sustainable aquaculture and improve the approval procedures.
• To directly benefit communities from renewable energy projects.
• Provide services, training and support adapted to rural, coastal and island areas.

10. Twenty commitments

1. Adopting a Brittany-5 maritime strategy.
2. Establish a Maritime Conference and a user mediator.
3. Creating the maritime observatory in open data format.
4. Networking ports and fish auctions.
5. Establish a fleet renewal plan.
6. Create the installation and transmission gateway.
7. Funding selectivity, security and decarbonization.
8. Develop fishing-scientific programs.
9. Develop plans per fishery and habitat.
10. Increasing local transformation.
11. Deploying voluntary traceability requires commitment.
12. Support responsible aquaculture and algae cultivation.
13. Create the sea-to-table accelerator.
14. Adopting coastal resilience contracts.
15. Organizing the co-operation between fishing and the marine renewable energy (MRE).
16. Create the territorial maritime profit fund.
17. Structuring the industrial sector of the marine renewable energy (MRE).
18. Deploy the maritime training map.
19. Making Brest an international oceanic hub.
20. Publish results, discrepancies, and corrections each year.

Conditions of implementation

No transformation is generalized without a budget, a market opportunity, revenue and evaluation. No objective is imposed without a budget, a timeline, support, and accessible technical solution. No transfer takes place without resources. In the event of failure, the system is corrected rather than maintained for appearances’ sake. A code green, orange, red It will indicate the trajectory, but will never replace the figures and their explanation. A temporary increase in an indicator may correspond to a transition or to a better census: each evolution will be interpreted before a decision is made.

11. Calendar 2027-2032

Year	Decisions and deliverables	Public platform
2027 — Measuring	Zero state Brittany-5; maritime conference; audit of ports and fleets; map of training facilities	Data, competences, budgets and controversies published
2028 — Organizing	Maritime strategy; observatory; port contracts; fleet desk; first coastal contracts	Established governance and calls for open projects
2029 — Invest	Modernization projects; demonstrator vessels; aquaculture accelerator; coastal fund	Projects in the five Départements and jobs followed
2030 — Correct	Mid-term evaluation; fisheries-habitat plans; aid adjustment and co-existence zones	Disagreements discussed and corrective measures voted on
2031 — Mainstream	Logistics network; local transformation; training; EMR industrial chain	Verifiable economic and ecological results
2032 — Evaluate	Independent assessment; consultation of communities; strategy 2033-2038	Final report, revised trajectories and associated budget

12. Monitoring dashboard

Indicator	Reference/target to be set in 2027	Frequency	Pilot
Maritime employment	Staff and FTE by discipline, gender, age and department	Annually	Observatory
Active fleet	Ships by age, size, profession, port and consumption	Annually	Fishing / ports
Renewal	Facilities, transmissions, terminations and vacant positions	Annually	Guichet
Security	Accidents, near-accidents and modernized ships	Annually	Prevention
Emissions	Litres and tCO2e per kg landed and per segment	Annually	Observatory
Selectivity	Unwanted captures and improved equipment	Campaign	Science / discipline
State of stocks	Stocks monitored and in good condition	Annually	Scientists
Habitats	Surface and condition of the sensitive habitats monitored	Every two years	Biodiversity
Disembarkations	Volume, value, species and seasonality	Monthly	Fish auctions
Local value	Part transformed and marketed in Brittany-5	Annually	Sector
Income	Median income, value sharing and sustainability	Annually	Observatory
Ports and fish auctions	Costs, revenues, deadlines, mutualization and energy	Quarterly	Port network
Aquaculture	Production, jobs, mortality and water quality	Annually	Sector / water
Training	Entrance, graduates, integration and reconversions	Return to school	Training
Research	Projects, funding, patents and transfers	Annually	Oceanal Pole
Coastal resilience	Population, assets and exposed activities; completed actions	Annually	Departments (and countries)
EMR locations	MW, jobs, local purchases and environmental incidents	Semiannual	Energy
Territorial benefit	Redistributed revenues and projects funded	Annually	Coastal Fund
Dialogue	Participation, agreements, disputes and mediation deadlines	Annually	Conference
Consolidated budget	Planned, paid for and result per Brittany-5 action	Budget	Assembly

13. Risks and precautions

Risk	Safeguard
Politics dictated by a single interest group	Pluralistic governance, common data and motivated decisions
Punitive ecology or a delayed transition	Dated trajectories, social support and revision clauses
Large projects without local impact	Contractual commitments, territorial funds and publication of purchases
Competition between ports	Coordinated specializations and investments valued at the Brittany-5 level
Aid captured by the biggest	Small business window, caps and transparency of beneficiaries
Misleading indicators	Published methods, long series of studies and conflicting expertise
The forgotten Loire-Atlantique	Zero state and explicitly established governance in five departments
Insufficient skills	Immediate measures distinguished from levers requiring legislation or devolution

Conclusion

For Yes Breizh, Brittany will not become a maritime power through a slogan, but by connecting its ports, its fishermen, its scientists, its businesses, its communities and its inhabitants. Success will be measured by four simultaneous results: more resilient ecosystems, more attractive jobs, more value preserved in Brittany and especially in our coastal communities capable of managing their future.

Mobilized resources and precautions

• Region Bretagne, Mission 5 — Economic, agricultural and maritime development, initial budget 2026.
• CESER from Brittany, Vessel-based fishing in Brittany: controversies and issues, Synthesis, 2025.
• Document submitted on «Mer»: elements related to the Brest maritime hub.
• SNP, Government Programme / Holyrood Election Manifesto 2026.

The available regional data often cover four Départements: the integration of the Loire-Atlantique region therefore constitutes a deliverable for the 2028 edition of Levrig. Proposals relating to the State, the European Union, or future devolution are distinguished from competences that can be mobilized immediately.

Notes and clarifications

1. The European Fund for Maritime Affairs, Fisheries and Aquaculture is managed by the Regional Council. This fund supports the energy transition of the fleet, the preservation of marine resources, sustainable aquaculture, and the development of Brittany’s coastal areas. ↩

2. Any creation of an observatory or agency etc. will have to be linked to the disappearance of at least one other equivalent public entity with the full reinstatement of the staff. Adjustments may be made subsequently.
↩

3. See the following note. ↩

4. Reminder: Any creation of an observatory or agency etc. must be linked to the disappearance of at least one other equivalent public entity with the full reinstatement of the staff. Adjustments may be made subsequently. ↩

The thematic dossiers of Levrig 2027 by Yes Breizh

• 1. Statute, institutions, devolution and Constitution
• 2. Public finances, budget and fiscal autonomy
• 2 bis. Budgetary analysis France – Brittany 5
• 3. The public service in Brittany
• 4. Health in Brittany
• 5. Disability in Brittany
• 6. Education, training and higher education
• 7. Culture, languages and media
• 8. Breton identity, transmission and cohesion
• 9. Housing in Brittany
• 10. Employment, businesses and economic development
• 11. Economy, trade and mobility
• 12. Agriculture and food
• 13. Sea, coast and fishing
• 14. Energy, climate and the ecological transition
• 15. Digitalization and sovereignty
• 16. Security, justice and defense
• 17. Europe and internationally
• 18. Breton Diaspora and international outreach