Fishing has been temporarily banned off the west coast of France in a bid to slow the accidental capture and death of dolphins and porpoises.
The ban came into effect on January 22 and is set to last until February 20. It applies to the entire length of coast - from the Pays Basque near the north of Spain, to the tip of Brittany.
This covers more than 75% of French waters on the Atlantic-Channel coast, said the junior minister in charge of the sea.
The ban concerns more than 500 French fishing boats, and also applies to foreign boats. It applies to boats of eight metres or longer, equipped with certain types of nets, including pelagic trawl, bottom pair trawl, trammel nets, and trammel gill nets.
And while fishing companies have said the measure will be “useless” against the problem, animal welfare associations and environmental NGOs say the ban does not go far enough.
Dolphin and porpoise deaths
The ban comes after the accidental capture and subsequent deaths of dolphins and porpoises (small dolphin-like cetaceans) has increased in the Atlantic coastal area since 2016.
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French observatory Pelagis estimates that nearly 1,500 cetaceans were found dead between December 1, 2022 and April 30, 2023 on the French coast. The problem is at its worst in winter.
Olivier Van Canneyt, biologist at Pelagis observatory, states on the CNRS (national research institute le Centre national de la recherche scientifique) website that the deaths caused by fishing correspond to a “removal rate of 1 to 5%”, which is “significantly above the commonly accepted threshold of 1% additional mortality”.
Christophe Béchu, the Minister for Ecological Transition, said on January 17: “The consensus is that between 5,000 and 10,000 cetaceans die [in the area each year] and at this level of mortality, the risks to the survival of the species are real and proven.”
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Hélène Peltier, from Pelagis, has stated that the “sustainable threshold of accidental captures” - meaning the number that would not make much difference to the population as a whole - would be 985 per year, across the entire Atlantic area from Gibraltar in the south of Spain, to Norway in the north.
This is, of course, far fewer than the 5,000-10,000 currently seen.
Species ‘could disappear in 40 years’
A 2019 report from Pelagis, with the CNRS marine mammal and bird observatory, found that at this rate, the animals could disappear from the Atlantic coast area within 40 years.
It reads: “The population growth rate seems to have decreased between 2002 and 2019 and does not allow it to be viable. The common dolphin population seems to be moving further and further away from stationarity (its long-term equilibrium is not stable).”
Dolphins are not currently considered to be at immediate extinction risk, according to the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature), but they are considered to be a protected species.
In February 2023, the NGO Sea Shepherd held a protest in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique) and called for a fishing ban, holding a banner reading: “Thousands of dolphins are massacred every year in France so that you can eat fish.” They held the banner in front of two real dolphin corpses.
On February 18, a dolphin was found scarred and dead in La Rochelle, as a protest against the ban by fishing groups.
Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France, responded: "Fishing people who do this are shooting themselves in the foot, because all they're doing is shining a spotlight on the cause we are fighting for.
Pelagis has said that intensive fishing heightens the risk of accidental capture in nets, and that dolphins suffer and suffocate during capture. Allain Bougrain Dubourg, president of animal welfare group the LPO, told Actu.fr that a dolphin can suffer “30 minutes of agony” before it dies.
“It’s not natural that dolphins are dying in these numbers. It’s because of overfishing,” Ms Essemlali said. “Normally, cetaceans are at the top of the food chain, so they reproduce when they want, they do what they want.
“That's how they've evolved and now, all of a sudden, we're inflicting prey mortality on them. They're not adapted to cope with that.”
The dolphins navigate using sonar and an echo localisation system, and when they are hunting for food, they are thought to be less aware of fishing nets that can accidentally snare them.
Animal welfare case
The case for a ban was first brought by environmental associations to the highest administrative court in France, the Conseil d'Etat, in March 2023.
The court then ordered the government to “close, within a period of six months, fishing zones in the Bay of Biscay for appropriate periods”. The government then issued a decree that would ban fishing in the area for one month each in 2024, 2025 and 2026. However, it also included several exceptions.
As a result, the Conseil d'Etat said that the exceptions were “too extensive for the closure of fishing to have a sufficient effect” in reducing the mortality rate of “small cetaceans to a sustainable level by 2024”. It suspended the government’s original decree and called for a stronger ban.
In an opinion published in May 2020, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), recommended introducing fishing closures and equipping boats with ‘pingers’, which are acoustic devices that keep dolphins away.
However, Sea Shepherd debates the effectiveness of these devices, saying that they do not avoid most captures. The NGO has called for an annual ban on fishing during the winter from December to March, and at least one month in summer.
It has also said that “in the long term, we need to stop eating fish”.
Fishing compensation
Fishing companies and individuals are set to receive compensation from the government to cover their losses during the fishing ban.
This aid “will vary between 80 and 85% of turnover [and will be paid] as quickly as possible,” said Mr Béchu on Friday, January 19. Fish merchants, transporters, and fishmongers will also be compensated.
Wholesalers have estimated their losses at more than €60 million.
Olivier Le Nézet, President of the Comité national des pêches maritimes et des élevages marins (the national sea fishing and marine animal committee), said it is preparing an appeal against the ban.
He told FranceInfo: “Blocking the boats in port is not going to give us the capacity to find solutions to avoid these [dolphin and porpoise] catches which, I would remind you, are minimal.”
Frédéric Toulliou, president of the Union du mareyage français (UMF) and the inter-professional association France Filière Pêche, said: “This will have a huge impact on the entire industry…For the fish trade, which is an essential link in the chain, this is a disaster.”
Julien Lamothe, member of national group Comité national des pêches, told Actu.fr: “Fishing is an activity that has existed and not changed for years, there are no new practices. Increased interaction with dolphins is not the fault of the fisherman. Accidental catches are still fairly rare.”
He added that he “could not accept” any further bans, nor any suggestions of a winter-long ban in future years.
But Mr Béchu said that the ban was in the fishing industry’s long-term interest. He said: "We want to maintain a French fishing industry and reconcile it with the need to preserve biodiversity…I’m not saying that this is enough, but we hope that it will reduce the number of captures.”
The Préfecture maritime de l'Atlantique has said it will ensure its patrols are “more present than usual” to ensure compliance with the ban.
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