In 1984 Gaumy started a cycle of winter voyages aboard so-called “classic” trawlers which continued until 1998 and led to the publication in 2001 of Pleine Mer (“Men at Sea”). Gaumy was aware that the open-deck trawlers, the boats on which he was photographing, were disappearing, like the Portuguese schooners that had fished for cod on the Grand Banks, their men line-fishing from open dories; competition from South American fishing vessels was too strong.