Two NGOs pleaded Tuesday for the stopping for three months this winter of fishing in the Bay of Biscay, in order to avoid the accidental deaths of dolphins.
The government replies that such a measure would cost the industry tens of millions.
France Nature Environnement and Sea Shepherd denounce as insufficient a plan presented by the government in May 2021 to reduce accidental captures.
France has been since July 2020 under the infringement procedure of the European Commission, which considers that the country does not fulfill its obligations towards this protected species.
The State not having responded to the requests of associations urging it to strengthen this plan, they attacked before the Council of State, highest administrative jurisdiction of the country, this "implicit refusal".
And demanded under an emergency procedure the closure from January to March 2022 "of French fisheries affected by cetacean catches" in the Bay of Biscay in order to reduce the number of these deaths.
Surveillance cameras on boats
Every winter, hundreds of cetacean corpses wash up on the French Atlantic coast and according to the Pelagis scientific observatory, accidental captures by fishing gear are one of the main causes of mortality.
Sea Shepherd also asked for the obligation to install surveillance cameras on the boats and the presence of observers.
The representatives of the associations once again denounced at the hearing the insufficiency, according to them, of the measures already taken, such as the installation of "pingers", acoustic devices to keep cetaceans away, in the face of the increase in strandings for five years. year.
15 million euros of losses for the sector
Government officials, for their part, defended these measures and insisted on the economic consequences of such a temporary ban.
A two-week closure at the end of January at the beginning of February would generate direct losses of 8 million euros for shipowners and fishermen and 15 million euros for the entire sector, according to the Ministry of the Sea. A closure of three month would have a direct cost of 40 million euros and 67 million taking into account the entire industry, according to these figures.
Believing these "short-term losses overvalued", the representatives of the associations also assured that they could be compensated by European funds and the recovery plan.
The decision should be made "in the course of next week" according to the judge in charge of the case.
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Finistère: The corpse of a dolphin runs aground on a beach in Carantec
Planet
Two NGOs attack the state, accusing it of not protecting dolphins enough
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Animals
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