The Rise of the Trawl Fishery

During the period between 1906 and 1945 the Bigouden fleet was completely transformed. The primary transformation was the change from sail to motor power and a gradually enlargement of the vessels themselves (partly to accommodate the added weight of the motors, partly to take advantage of their newly extended fishing range and catching capacity). The first 5 motorized vessels were put into service in 1924. By 1934 the number of motorized vessels had jumped to 634. The financing of the fleet?s motorization was underwritten by the state funded Credit Maritime.

The Credit Maritime was established by the French state in 1906, in part as a reaction to a crisis of undersupply in the sardine fishery and partly to assist artisanal fishers in purchasing and outfitting their own fishing vessels. Initially this worked to both to the interests of canners and fishers. The canneries did not have to finance or own the fishing vessels, thus shifting the burden of economic risk. For the fishers, access to capital allowed them a modicum of independence from the canners consistent with a peasant mode of subsistence. It is important to point out that while the state assisted fishers in becoming "little capitalists" they were significantly less supportive of other avenues of economic improvement, such as the formation of trade unions.

The state funded program of motorization figured prominently in the collapse of the sardine canners. The switch from sail to motor opened up door to the successful prosecution of fisheries other than sardines and mackerel (the dominant fish species caught prior to the second world war). In the post war period ground fish quickly became the most important commercial species. This change in primary target species was linked to the adoption of trawl gear that had been made possible with the introduction of motorized vessels and hydraulics. By 1950 trawling was incontestably the primary focus of activity in the fishery. Whereas, sardines were linked with industrial canning plants in the region, the newly developed trawl fishery was oriented toward a fresh fish market based first in a regional network of small retailers and then in the large corporate distribution system which extended from dockside fish auctions to supermarkets.

The introduction of trawl technology and the motorization of the fishing fleet cleared the way for the development of a relatively independent artisanal fishery to develop in the Bigoudennie. In the post World War II period, trawling made it possible for the fishers to circumvent price and market controls by the canneries and to enter the rapidly growing fresh fish market. The fresh fish market was better suited toward maintaining higher ex-vessel fish prices. Initially fishers and fish buyers used the existing rail links to transport fish to market. Very quickly after the end of the second world war, road and highway modernization programs made truck transport more attractive due to its lower costs and greater flexibility.

The infrastructural support for the development of the sardine fishery was laid down by the railroad and the canning process. The post-war fishery developed in conjunction with the techniques of refrigeration and an expanding highway system that made it possible to ship fish by truck. The new reliance on truck transport (the major local trucking firm was established in Le Guilvinec in 1954) allowed a greater flexibility in marketing for fishboat owners. In the place of the departing canneries a system of government run fish auctions emerged.

The shift away from an industrial cannery fishery to a fresh market artisanal fishery had a major impact on the structure of employment in the region. While the employment of men on the fishboats remained relatively stable into the 1960s, employment prospects for women disappeared as the canneries and subsidiary factories closed their doors and moved away. Thus, the Bigoudennie entered a period of de-industrialization at the very moment when the rest of rural Brittany was "modernizing." In hindsight, the introduction of motors and trawl gear foreshadowed the death of the local canning industry and made possible the survival of a family-based artisanal fishing industry that has lasted well into the twentieth century and (one hopes) beyond.