The State was condemned for lack of protection of the dolphins vis-a-vis the fishing activities in Atlantic, considered as responsible for the death of hundreds of these protected marine mammals, taken each year accidentally in the nets.
In a judgment of July 2, announced by the NGO Sea Shepherd at the origin of the prosecutions, the administrative court of Paris estimated that the State had "been slow to implement concrete actions with regard to the observation of recurrent episodes , since the 1990s, accentuated since 2016, of excess mortality of cetaceans on the Atlantic coast, in particular in the Bay of Biscay ", thus failing to fulfill its obligations under European legislation.
"The stranding episodes of more than a hundred cetaceans are regularly observed"
The court noted in particular that "the stranding episodes of more than a hundred cetaceans (...) much higher than the seasonal norm and concentrated in the winter period, have been regularly observed since the 1990s, on the Atlantic coast, on average more than 900 per year, and increasing sharply since 2016 "and that" some of these animals bear traces suggesting catches by fishing gear ".
But stranded cetaceans (1,642 in 2017, 1,383 in 2018) represent only part of the deaths: between 3,500 and 4,000 common dolphins would have died at sea by accidental capture in the Bay of Biscay during the winters 2017 and 2018, or even up to at 10,000 according to high estimates from the scientific observatory Pelagis, notes the court.
"Correlation between the activities of certain fisheries and the population of common dolphins"
And if the department argues that no scientific data to date "does not establish a proven link between cetacean mortalities and a particular type of fishery", it recognizes that there is at least "a spatial correlation between the activities of certain fisheries and the common dolphin population ”, adds the decision.
"We wish to draw the attention of the new Minister for the Ecological Transition Barbara Pompili to the fundamental aspect of the preservation of dolphins in France and to the need to put in place urgent and effective measures to stop the carnage", a commented in a press release the president of Sea Shepherd France, Lamya Essemlali.
Sea Sheperd calls for ban on fishing in the Natura 2000 area of the region
The NGO, which patrols the Bay of Biscay each winter to film dolphins trapped in trawls, considers in particular that the acoustic repellents installed on certain ships to deter cetaceans are a “decoy” and calls outright for the ban on fishing in the Natura 2000 area of the region.
The administrative court rejected this request. He considered that the cetacean protection plan adopted by the government at the end of 2019, which notably provides for the installation of acoustic repellents on fishing gear, was likely to compensate for the "deficiency" noted.
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