On Wednesday February 22, the sky is low over Paris and the Esplanade des Invalides looks like a dolphin cemetery, with 400 life-size photos of mammals on display. All of them have been found dead on the beaches of the Atlantic coast over the past three months due to intensive fishing throughout the Atlantic zone, generating a national stir and the mobilization of the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO).
“A preventable massacre”
Since January 25, 50,000 people have co-signed the letter from the president of the LPO, Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, addressed to Emmanuel Macron asking him to ban fishing from January 15 to March 15 in the Bay of Biscay, and to end to the slaughter of stranded dolphins. “The slaughter of 400 dolphins was preventable. How ? We must put an end to the measures that seem to satisfy the executive. We must turn the page on the 20th century, suspend deadly fishing and compensate fishermen. If it is not us, it is the European Commission which will bring the executive to its senses, by imposing even more penalties on us”.
The LPO notes bitterly that despite the urgency of the situation, and repeated alerts for several years by nature protection associations, no fishing ban is however envisaged before 2024-2025, if the acoustic devices tested l next year would prove ineffective. “The scoops” adopted by the government risk delaying the problem according to Allain Bougrain-Dubourg, since the sound repulsion of dolphins, visibly ineffective, consists in trying to chase cetaceans from their natural feeding areas and deprive them of necessary food resources. to their survival. The LPO will file the complaint with the European Commission, asking it to seize the Court of Justice of the EU and to apply heavy financial sanctions for France.
Most stranded dolphins are lactating and pregnant females who show all signs of good health in 80% of cases, according to the association. Dominique Chevillon, Vice-President of the Marine Natural Park of the Gironde estuary and the Pertuis Charentais, indicates that “for 30-40 years now, the same causes have been occurring in the same places in Gascony at the same time. We cannot say today that it was accidental. We are responsible and we are guilty”.
Dolphins extinct in 30 years?
A strong measure would be to prohibit fishing in the Bay of Biscay during the winter period, a prospect firmly opposed by industrial fishermen. Arnaud Pénarend, sailor, explains why he supports the fight of the LPO. During his last two years of activity, Arnauld could not spend a single day at sea along the Channel coast and the Atlantic, without being accompanied by dolphins. Except that in November 2022, the dolphins have completely disappeared. Alerted by the situation, Arnaud went to meet the fishermen of his region:
“They told me that they were aware that their activity led to the involuntary capture of dolphins, caught in the nets while they sometimes play near the boat propellers”. There is a problem and we have to find a solution to keep the dolphins away from this delicate phase of setting up fishing gear”, underlines the sailor. “Today, on our coasts, scientists assure us that the level of dolphin capture has exceeded the critical threshold for population survival and that in 30 years, collectively, our friends will have disappeared from the French coasts”.