The head of a dead dolphin exposed during a demonstration to denounce non-selective fishing, in Nantes on February 24, 2023 (AFP/Archives/Sebastien SALOM-GOMIS)
“Five hundred French vessels” will not be able to fish in the Bay of Biscay for four weeks this winter, fishermen denounce Friday after a decision by the Council of State which toughens the month without fishing imagined by the government to reduce the deaths of dolphins caught accidentally in the nets.
The highest administrative court, seized in summary proceedings by nature defense associations, suspended exemptions contained in an October decree which prohibits certain boats from fishing in the Bay of Biscay for four weeks in winter, in order to preserve dolphins.
“These exemptions are too important for the closure of fishing to have a sufficient effect on accidental catches to have a chance of reducing the mortality of small cetaceans to a sustainable level by 2024,” explains the Council of State in a press release, who has yet to rule on the merits of the case.
For the Sea Shepherd association, it is a “new historic victory” which “will provide respite to cetaceans this winter in the Bay of Biscay”.
The NGO had taken the matter to court with France Nature Environnement (FNE), Defense of Aquatic Environments (DMA) and the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO). In the government plan, she criticizes, “only a few dozen boats were to be affected by this closure, making it totally ineffective.”
The National Fisheries Committee (CNPMEM) denounced Friday evening “extremist NGOs” who “want to eliminate our professions and our sectors by making the Bay of Biscay where we have worked for centuries, a zone prohibited for fishing”, according to its president, Olivier Le Nézet, quoted in a press release.
The committee estimates that 500 vessels will not have the right to fish for a month in the Bay of Biscay, a vast maritime area which extends, in the west of France, from the northern side of Spain to to Brittany.
He further states that the species of common dolphins “is not in danger” in this area.
The Council of State recalls having ordered the government in March “to close, within six months, fishing zones in the Bay of Biscay for appropriate periods, in order to limit accidental deaths of dolphins and porpoises”.
In response, the State Secretariat for the Sea issued a decree establishing a one-month fishing ban period in 2024, 2025 and 2026, “from January 22 to February 20 inclusive”, for all fishing boats. eight meters or more equipped with certain types of nets.
– “Clear risk of disappearance” –
In his decision, the judge considers in particular that vessels using pelagic seines – nets used on the surface to encircle schools of fish – must be included in the ban.
He cites the International Center for the Exploration of the Sea (Ciem), the international scientific body of reference, according to which pelagic seines “were at the origin of approximately 20% of accidental captures of common dolphins in the Gulf of Gascony between 2019 and 2021”.
The judge emphasizes that fishermen no longer benefiting from the exemptions will be able – in the same way as others – to be compensated for the loss of earnings. The compensation platform, which announces up to 100% public aid, has already been opened.
“Without fish, the fish trade dies and the auctions close. Compensating vessels for their stoppages is not enough to support indirect jobs and contribute to the balance of territories,” protests the national fisheries committee.
Even if they did not address this issue during the summary proceedings, the associations consider that “the minimum conditions set by scientists to guarantee the survival of the dolphins” are not respected with a one-month closure.
Ciem recommended closures of three months in winter and at least one month in summer, periods of peak dolphin mortality.
“We are at a clear risk of disappearance. Every day adds to the decline of these protected species, this is not acceptable,” criticized the president of the LPO, Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, during the summary hearing on 12 December.
Ciem estimated that around 9,000 common dolphins died each year by accidental capture on the French Atlantic coast. A fraction of them wash up on the coast.
The Pelagis observatory recorded 1,380 strandings of small cetaceans between December and April 2022 on the Atlantic coast.
© 2023 AFP
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