The photo made the rounds on social media. We see the scarified remains of a dolphin bearing the inscription “Sea Shepherd PD” (with a missing H in the name of the association). A scene that led the organization to file a complaint against X for “mutilation of a protected species”, and which reminds us, once again, of the tensions that exist around the cohabitation between these mammals and fishermen off the coast. French. Since December 2022, 400 dead dolphins have been found, especially in the Bay of Biscay, but associations estimate that up to 10,000 cetaceans are victims of fishing each year. According to the Pelagis observatory, only 20% actually wash up on the beaches and the majority of the remains bear traces of fishing gear.
On Tuesday February 21, the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) initiated new appeals to the French government and the European Commission to obtain the suspension of fishing in the Bay of Biscay in view of the unprecedented increase in strandings of dolphins. This request for “spatio-temporal closure” of fishing must also be examined on Friday February 24 by the Council of State, after an appeal initiated by France Nature Environnement. This request is also supported by the French committee of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and its president Maud Lelièvre. Interview.
L’Express: What conclusions can we draw from the first figures for dolphin strandings on the French coast for this winter of 2022-2023?
Maud Lelievre: Stranding levels are extremely high, and there is an unprecedented increase in mortality for the winter of 2022-2023. Based on data from the Pelagis observatory, we alerted the President of the Republic and the government to the excess mortality of dolphins in the Bay of Biscay. This is worrying, knowing that Pelagis only analyzes mammals that are found on beaches. However, we know that there are many others lying at the bottom of the ocean.
According to the autopsies performed by Pelagis on the stranded dolphins, they still have fish in their stomachs, which proves that they were caught while they were eating. Lactating or pregnant females were also found. Currently, it is the breeding season, and it is also at this time that we see the most strandings…
Can we objectively link these massive strandings of dolphins, particularly in the Bay of Biscay, to the fishing that takes place in this area?
Apart from collision with boats, noise pollution or the reduction of natural resources, the main threat to cetaceans is accidental capture. Because the latter often ends badly: either they are released with a fin or a cut tail, or they have been injured by the plastic nets.
To reduce this damage, a spatio-temporal closure of the fishery must be put in place. In its new opinion, published on February 9, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (Ciem) reiterates its recommendation for a few weeks’ interruption of fishing in the Bay of Biscay. We are in favor of it, and we wrote, with the LPO and about twenty associations, last Friday to the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevičius, to ask him to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union after having filed a complaint in 2019 against France at European level.
In January, the government updated its control plan, mainly based on the installation of detectors or acoustic repellents on trawlers and gillnets. Is it sufficient ?
No. It is clear that these measures do not work so we must move towards a spatio-temporal closure of fishing. I want to make it clear that we are not in opposition with the fishermen. Such a decision certainly requires accompanying it with compensation because it is not a question of killing a profession, but the scientific protocols, the analyzes carried out by the experts show that today what is put in place is not enough.
You are asking with the LPO for strong measures to regulate fishing. How can this activity be reconciled with safeguarding biodiversity?
Resources have to be shared. The dolphin is an intelligent species, but it is perhaps up to the more intelligent species of the two, man, to put in place the appropriate arrangements. But we must not wait until the dolphins are on the verge of extinction to act because it will be too late. It is better to protect upstream, this is what we have shown with tuna in the Mediterranean for example.
You ask Emmanuel Macron to act by questioning him directly. Do you expect him to answer you?
France is committed to the agreements for the protection of the high seas, we also invest a lot to fight against sea buccaneers off Madagascar and Reunion. Emmanuel Macron will soon be proposing a summit on the planet and on the oceans, so it is essential to be consistent on these issues. We must think together to find conditions of coexistence in the interest of economic activity and for the preservation of species which, tomorrow, will be species in great danger if nothing is done quickly.