When words no longer ­suffice to describe the irrationality that has taken hold of his profession, Patrick Ramet, a third generation fisherman from the northern French port of Etaples, reaches for his mobile phone.

There’s a catch: a Boulogne fisherman is pleased with these cod but crews are less happy at the official quota, which they say is threatening their livelihoods

There, on its screen, is a photograph recently sent by his cousin with the caption, “Quel Horreur!” It features the deck of a local trawler strewn with dead cod, their mouths agape.