Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews were carried out with official representatives of all 9 French POs concerned with the sole fishery in the Bay of Biscay in June and July 2012. Limitations to fisheries access have changed fishing behaviour in several main ways. Most
fishermen acknowledged strong impacts of the progressive implementation of individual quotas on
fishing behavior. As a consequence, fishermen had to adapt their fishing strategy
either by increasing their fishing effort on sole fishery, or diversifying their activity. In any ways, reallocating the production on others species was necessary. Other changes relate to a reduced number of days at sea for the most specialised gillnetters. Some exits from the industry or from sole fishery have been registered. Another crucial issue addresses fishermen. Crew members are more attracted to vessels owning the largest share of sole sub- quotas. Hence some POs are confronted with a deck-hand turnover between members. These interviews showed that compliance with sub-quotas and national quota is possible by strengthening the monitoring and management system of the fishery and by more individualised production management within POs.