Two French patrol vessels have been sent to waters close to the Channel island of Jersey, where more than 50 French fishing boats are protesting over fishing rights, French maritime authorities told AFP. "With around 50 fishing boats in the area then obviously we wanted to pre-position these two boats," a spokesperson for the coast guard on the Channel and North Sea told AFP, identifying one boat as a gendarme police vessel and the other a maritime administration patroller. sf/adp/js/yad