Scallop wars: an uneasy ceasefire as fishermen await the next salvo Some of the French vessels are said to have tried to ram the British and their crews threw ropes into the props of British trawlers to snag them. A seven-hour stand-off followed, with the French leaving only when a French police boat and a naval vessel, the Pruviere, arrived at the request of the British Government. The attack was the culmination of weeks of tension following the collapse of talks between British and French fishermen over the allocation of fishing areas and quotas. The dispute now threatens to escalate into a full-scale "scallop war," with some militant French trawlermen saying they will blockade British ports and ferries and target British exports of scallops if they don't get their way. Their actions have deeply angered men such as Jersey-born Mr Bailey, 38, who has spent all his working life at sea. "It's just plain wrong," he said, from the wheelhouse of his 50ft trawler, which sails 18 hours out of Brixham to reach the Baie de Seine scallop beds. The French lads are fishermen like us, and we respect the fact they are trying to make a living, but attacking our boys like that is not on. It's not the way to go about settling your disputes. As he speaks, Kerry Watts, 28, one of the Emulate's four-strong crew - and the only woman working on the Brixham fleet - begins sorting the latest haul of scallops, lifted by two huge metal dredgers which scour the seabed. In order to comply with strict European Union conservation measures, each scallop shell has to be measured through a metal funnel to make sure it is mature enough to harvest. The younger, smaller ones less than 110mm wide are thrown back into the sea to carry on growing. It is a tough job, with trawlers working round the clock on trips lasting five to seven days, in winds of up to force seven and mountainous waves. During the trip they return regularly to Portsmouth or Shoreham, the nearest British ports, to unload the scallops, which will have been kept in the boats" fish rooms at temperatures of -3C. The crews work six hours on, six hours off, among the ever-present smell of diesel and the bare metal of the pitching vessel, taking it in turns to gather and sort the prized mollusc. During their hours off, they sleep in narrow bunks or watch television or a film on a DVD player in the galley area. Here they also cook, with meals including roast dinners, steak or fresh fish caught that day. Scallops, understandably, are rarely on the menu. As well as being a gruelling occupation it is also a perilous one. Only last month, Geoff Ingram, 51, drowned after his trawler, the Sarah Jayne, capsized off Brixham. The latest available figures show that eight British fishermen were lost at sea last year, with total fatalities between 2000 and 2011 reaching 132, making it one of the most dangerous working environments there is. Pete McLeod's trawler, the Danielle, had a lucky escape, pulling into harbour the day before the attack to offload its scallops. "It's a form of piracy to surround a boat and stop it from going about its lawful business," said Mr McLeod, 53, whose boat is laid up in Brixham for maintenance. And that's what the French did. We understand they are trying to protect their livelihood, but we are abiding by the rules and they should let us get on with it. Those rules are at the heart of the dispute. The French claim that the British trawlers have been fishing within the 12-mile exclusion zone. The British fishermen are adamant they were at least 15 miles offshore - which still falls within French territorial waters - when they were attacked. To complicate matters, the French are demanding a ban on all fishing in the Baie de Seine in order to replenish its stock of fish and scallops. They had imposed a voluntary ban on fishing through the summer and were angry the British boats had not done the same, claiming that their actions were putting stocks of scallops at risk of overfishing. But the British fishermen would already appear to be operating under far stricter limits than those imposed on the French. While the British fleet is restricted to 3.3 million "kilowatt" days at sea - the measurement of the boats" fishing capacity - the French are allowed 7.7 million days, although they use only a quarter of their actual capacity. The limits mean the British scallop boats can sail only 36 days in the current October to December quarter. Matters came to a head on September 18, in Paris, where, in the monumental office complex of La Grande Arche de la Defense, eight British and 12 French representatives of the trawler owners gathered to thrash out a deal. Negotiations had broken down in February this year, but both sides were confident a settlement could be reached. The British offered to stay out of the Baie de Seine for up to eight weeks in return for access to one million kW days of the unused French quota. All but one of the French representatives were in agreement, but the objection of one representative from Brittany, who speaks for six per cent of French scallopers, was enough to scupper the deal. As a result, the status quo prevailed and the British carried on working the Baie de Seine. Andy McLeod, 44, whose boat the Van Dijck was among those attacked two weeks ago, said: "We carried on fishing perfectly legally in the 15-mile zone, as we have done for years, and so it was extremely worrying that they attacked us as they did. What they did to fellow fishermen was extremely unpleasant. It was frightening for our lads and we don't know if its going to escalate. Mr McLeod and his fellow trawler owners want to see the Royal Navy step into the dispute by mounting more regular and highly visible patrols in the area. The Government says it is the responsibility of the French authorities to ensure our trawlers are protected. Richard Benyon, a junior minister at the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), said: "These are not international waters. It is the responsibility of the French authorities to manage activity in their waters and France must ensure safe access to UK vessels wishing to prosecute the Baie de Seine. Defra and the Marine Management Organisation have made it clear to their French counterparts at the highest level that UK fishermen have a legitimate right to fish the Baie de Seine. The dispute is replete with ironies. Not only is much of the British haul of scallops exported back to the French and Spanish markets, after being processed by UK wholesalers, but Brixham's new, £20 million fish market was part-funded by the EU's member states, including France. As with any trade dispute, there is money at stake. Scallops worth more than £70 million are exported from Britain every year, bringing a welcome injection of cash into fishing ports. A 30ft trawler like the Danielle or the Van Dijck can bring home £40,000 worth of scallops after a good trip, although the costs of diesel, wages and maintenance have driven up overheads and cut profit margins. But for the men on the boats there is now something even more basic at stake. At home in Brixham, Mr Bailey's three young daughters have watched news reports of the attack on their father's boat and those of his fellow trawlermen. I do understand why they [the French] were wound up, but there's other ways going about dealing with the situation than going alongside other fishing vessels and throwing rocks and doing stupid things because people are going to get hurt.