French fishermen protest as anger mounts in Spain, Portugal, Belgium

0 Comments | AFP, May, 2008

CALAIS, France (AFP) — French fishermen disrupted shipping in the Dover Strait and blocked access to an oil refinery on Friday as anger over high fuel costs reached fishing industries in Belgium, Spain and Portugal.

About 40 trawlers formed a cordon at sea in a protest dubbed "Operation Snail" to slow down traffic through the Dover Strait, a busy seaway used by some 600 vessels a day between the Atlantic and the North Sea.

In Dunkirk, fishermen set fire to crates and set up roadblocks to prevent trucks from entering the Total oil refinery where riot police were deployed to secure the entrances, said an AFP correspondent.

Fishermen ransacked fish stands at two wholesalers in Normandy and at supermarkets in the southern Narbonne region in protest at sales of...