The boat hums, very close to the swimmers. Immediately, the gendarmes of the Arcachon nautical brigade intervene to interrupt this marine rodeo, one of the many nuisances disturbing the clear waters of the Banc d’Arguin (Gironde), a nature reserve which turns into a “boat parking lot” in summer .
Faced with the four young boaters guilty of having turned too close to the sandbank and at a speed close to 20 knots (37 km/h) in a protected area limited to five knots, the three soldiers demonstrate pedagogy.
“You arrive + like a ball + from the sea, you don’t even ask yourself the question of slowing down”, lectures Warrant Officer Thierry Aubouin.
The control makes it possible to check the documentation of the luxurious motor boat, its safety equipment (extinguisher, life jackets, flashlight…) and to make boaters aware of the number one danger in this very touristic arm of the sea, enclosed between the dune du Pilat and the banc d’Arguin: excessive speed.
“We do prevention, we are not here to + murder + people” with tickets, explains to AFP Warrant Officer Maxime Priat, on board the Pherousa, the star of the gendarmerie.
Verbalized, Paul, 22, “simply assumes his stupidity”, which should lead to the suspension of his boating license for a few weeks.
“Nuisances”
At the beginning of August, some 300 boats are massed on the Banc d’Arguin, a four-kilometre-long sandbar at the entrance to the Bassin d’Arcachon, one of the most popular areas on the Atlantic coast. .
And the gendarmes, who patrol daily, face the overcrowding of the site, with an average of 100 offenses per month in the summer.
“Everyone wants their piece of the cake from this magnificent site: yachtsmen, passenger transport professionals, fishermen, oyster farmers…”, explains Major Jérôme Goussard, commander of the nautical brigade.
Curator of the Banc d’Arguin national nature reserve, Benoît Dumeau defends the “singularity of this territory”, “refuge” for many species of birds (gulls, terns, sandpipers, oystercatchers) and fish.
“The reserve sometimes takes the form of boat parking and that creates nuisance”, deplores this official of Sepanso, a federation of environmental associations, which judges the area “victim of its success”.
“When the gendarmes are there to make everyone slow down, we breathe a little because their presence is good,” he observes.
“A little bit fast”
At the end of July, the State organized a control operation in the area, reporting around thirty violations, including speeding up to 30 knots (55 km / h). The gendarmerie confirms an “increase in offenses and incivilities” in recent years, in particular by users of sea scooters.
Around the Pherousa, a gendarme patrols himself on a jet-ski and, like a sheepdog, catches up and beats down boats that exceed the authorized speed, such as the jet-ski of Michel Moreno, 47, who went fishing with a few friends.
Controlled, the latter recognizes the facts: “We are a little too close to the coast, we were going a little fast … The control is normal, no problem”, concedes this Bordeaux roofer, underlining the importance of “protecting the ‘place’ in the face of the risk of ‘accident’.
In the absence of a functional torch and paper documentation, this offender has five days to comply, under penalty of sanction by the maritime court.
The 10 personnel of the nautical brigade take turns on the jet-ski, the practice of which is “exhausting”.
“We share the pleasure … and the aches”, smiles Warrant Officer Priat, member of a multitasking unit: specialists in scuba diving, these gendarmes are regularly mobilized within the framework of judicial investigations in New Aquitaine , for the search for bodies or submerged vehicles.
And, last year, they were in support of the firefighters in the face of the gigantic fire which ravaged the forests of Teste-de-Buch, very close to the coast.
“We had a front row seat and the Canadairs came to scoop between the Banc d’Arguin and the Dune du Pilat”, remembers Maxime Priat. “We had to secure the area to avoid an accident.”
08/11/2023 21:18:35 – La Teste-de-Buch (France) (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
2023-08-11 19:45:22
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