First modification:
The Conseil d’Etat, France’s supreme court of administrative justice, has called on the government to act to protect dolphins and close fishing grounds. In less than 10 days, some 500 cetaceans have washed up dead on the Atlantic coast of France.
Most of the dolphins found dead off the coast of the French Bay of Biscay drowned after becoming entangled in fishing nets. This was stated on Monday, March 20, by the Pelagis Marine Mammal Observatory.
Hours later, the French Council of State issued an order to the government to “close the fishing zones in the gulf for appropriate periods, in order to limit the deaths of common dolphins, large dolphins and harbor porpoises, victims of involuntary captures during the fishing”.
“The number of deaths related to fishing threatens the protection of dolphins. Since 2018, every year the maximum limit to maintain the protection status is exceeded, ”added the Council of State.
Several associations had appealed to the Council of State. Among them Sea Shepherd, which stood out the week before by displaying dolphin carcasses in front of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
???? ????????⚡FLASH – Sea Sheperd exhibits mutilated dolphins in front of the European Parliament to pressure Paris to stop non-selective fishing techniques. pic.twitter.com/S2YEb76hwS
— Neodia (@NeodiaFr) March 14, 2023
“We have to improve our practices”
It is not the first time that a massive number of cetaceans have ended up on the French coast. Between December 2022 and January 2023, with the change in wind direction, more than 300 dead dolphins had been discovered after drifting towards the mainland. According to the Pelagis observatory, most of these show traces of capture on the skin, which correspond to fishing nets.
The issue is thorny for the government. Fishermen have tried to repel dolphins with acoustic systems on the bows of boats, but their effectiveness is limited. “We have to improve our practices,” Emmanuel Macron acknowledged during the Agriculture Show earlier this month and said he would submit to the request of the Council of State. To which he will undoubtedly resist in the fishing guild.
The NGO Sea Shepherd released a video last February showing the mutilated carcass of a dolphin. On his smooth skin is carved an insult directed explicitly against the association.