Two NGOs, Sea Shepherd and France Nature Environnement, will file appeals this Monday before the Council of State against the government, accused of not taking the necessary measures to preserve dolphins, a protected species threatened by certain fishing techniques. Each will file an interim suspension and an appeal on the merits.
The European Commission opened an infringement procedure against France in July 2020, ruling that the country is not fulfilling its obligations towards this protected species. She returned a letter to this effect in early October. Every winter, hundreds of cetacean corpses wash up on the French Atlantic coast.
Save the dolphin Ryan
According to the Pelagis scientific observatory, accidental captures by fishing gear are one of the main causes of mortality. For NGOs, the plan presented by the government in May 2021 to reduce these catches remains insufficient. In October, FNE asked the Ministry of the Sea “to close for three months during each winter and for one month during each summer the fisheries concerned by the catches of cetaceans”.
Based on recommendations from Ciem, a scientific body which monitors the ecosystems of the North Atlantic, it also asks to install cameras on boats and to enforce the obligation to report incidental captures of dolphins. The association indicates that it has not received a response from the ministry.
Immediate measures requested
She therefore seized the Council of State via “an appeal in excess of power, appeal to the merits to annul the implicit decision of rejection” of the ministry, explained Jérôme Graefe, lawyer for FNE. The association calls for “an emergency measure specifically for this winter period 2021-2022”, from January 15 to March 15, period where the majority of strandings take place.
“This closure can be financed” by European funds and the recovery plan, “it is an ecologically responsible and economically and socially acceptable measure”, argues the FNE. FNE, which had already lodged an appeal with the Council of State in February, decided to bring the case again to justice because “the State does not take all the means in its possession to try to improve things ”, judge Elodie Martinie-Cousty, of the association.
Sea Shepherd, for its part, asks “the Council of State for immediate concrete measures,” said Marion Crécent, lawyer for the NGO.