It was 30 years ago. In 1992, the sentence of the international court of New York falls and reduces the exclusive economic zone of France. The destiny of the archipelago changes, it is the end of the good old days of big fishing.
On June 10, 1992, the international tribunal in New York sealed the fate of the archipelago by deciding to reduce the exclusive economic zone of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon to a tunnel 10 miles wide by 200 miles long.
We did not take into account at all the economy, economic traditions, fishing traditions, the weight of the history of Saint-Pierrais and Miquelonnais. I think we all deserved better than that.
Gérard Grignon – Member of Parliament for Saint-Pierre and Miquelon in 1992
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The stupor is general, the destiny of the archipelago has just changed. For five centuries its history has been linked to that of fishing.
In July of that same year 1992, a moratorium on cod was introduced for two years. It will be extended the following year to almost all of the Gulf. It’s the end of an era, that of deep-sea fishing.
Martine Briand returns for us to this part of our local history.
This upheaval which struck the whole archipelago, Jean Lebailly remembers it well. A privileged witness of this period, he was then director of Interpêche.
Martine Briand spoke with him.
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