In Paris, awareness campaign on the excess mortality of dolphins caused by fishing
The exhibition was installed on the Esplanade des Invalides, in the center of Paris.
AFP - LUDOVIC MARIN
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The League for the Protection of Birds, at the origin of this ephemeral photo exhibition, has initiated new appeals to the French government and the European Commission to obtain the suspension of fishing off the French coast.
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Four hundred dolphins stranded on the lawns of the Esplanade des Invalides.
To raise public awareness of the issue of excess cetacean mortality caused by fishing, the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) opted for a shock operation.
These full-size photos illustrate this "
odious slaughter (...) even earlier and more intense this year
", denounces the association.
“
It's very colorful, so it's shocking.
There is also a feeling of anger that emerges from these photos
, ”reacts a student who campaigns for Déclic project, an association for the protection of the environment at Science-Po Paris, at the microphone of RFI.
"
For the winter of 2022/2023, the monitoring of reports of strandings of small cetaceans in the Atlantic shows an unprecedented increase in mortality
", with 377 strandings already recorded this season, points out the LPO.
The association calls for a halt to fishing in the Bay of Biscay, off the south-west of France.
►
To read also: On France24 – Hundreds of dead dolphins on the beaches of the Atlantic coast, the government called to act
10,000 dolphins killed each year
It is from this census, carried out since 1970 by the Pelagis observatory, that the experts assess the real excess mortality at sea of cetaceans.
Only 20% wash up on beaches and the majority of corpses bear traces of fishing gear, according to Pelagis.
"
There are around 180,000 dolphins in the Bay of Biscay and we kill 10,000 a year,"
explains Cédric Marteau, from the nature protection division at the LPO.
This represents a huge impact on reproduction and we are already seeing the rejuvenation of the population, which is not good in terms of population dynamics
”.
The French government updated its control plan in January, mainly based on the installation of detectors or acoustic repellents on trawlers.
In view of the rising figures, “
we are forced to see that it does not work
”, deplores Cédric Marteau.
With 25 other associations, the LPO had already filed a complaint in 2019 against France at European level.
She has just written to the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, asking him to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union.
The LPO is based on the new opinion, published on February 9, by the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Ciem), which reiterates its recommendation to suspend fishing in the Bay of Biscay for a few weeks.
The measure is strongly opposed by industrial fishermen.
“
The problem essentially concerns the French fishery, so France can very well act alone
”, pleads Cédric Marteau.
►
To read also: Two NGOs attack the French State to better protect dolphins
(
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