Fifty-eight vessels and hundreds of mariners blocked major oil distribution hubs along the French Mediterranean coast on September 15 to denounce unsustainable energy costs for local fleets. The joint action, organized by the fisheries committees of Occitanie, PACA, and Corsica alongside industry trade unions, targeted the Fos-sur-Mer terminal and the Frontignan depot, halting tank truck transit and disrupting fuel distribution. The protest quickly expanded to the port infrastructures of Sète, Nice, and Port-la-Nouvelle, severely impacting commercial navigation and passenger transport along the route connecting France and Italy. The naval blockade at the entrance of the port of Nice even forced several Corsica Ferries vessels to alter their courses and divert disembarkations to the Italian port of Savona.

At the core of the mobilization is the devastating impact that professional diesel prices exert on operating budgets across fishing fleets. The extension of state subsidies through the end of the year, announced by the executive led by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, has been deemed entirely insufficient by vessel owners' representatives. Sector associations are demanding the immediate introduction of a price cap fixed at sixty cents per liter, alongside the prompt release of backlogged subsidies accumulated since last spring.

The demands, however, extend beyond tax issues and directly target European Union directives on marine ecosystem protection. Fishermen strongly contest the restrictions imposed by the European West Med plan, a regulation that has drastically cut the annual operating allowance for trawlers to just one hundred days. Union delegations, received in Paris by Minister Catherine Chabaud, are calling for a thorough revision of net mesh size regulations and structural support for the sector's transition, reiterating that without clear economic guarantees, the Mediterranean fleet faces permanent paralysis.