“Fishermen try to remove evidence of capture”, denounces Sea Shepherd

A new dolphin corpse has been found on one of the beaches on the Atlantic coast. His body, voluntarily disemboweled, was found on Sunday February 19, on a beach in Labenne (Landes), learned France Bleu Gascogne, Tuesday February 21. According to the NGO Sea Shepherd, the fishermen are responsible for this act of cruelty.

The dolphin’s wound is clear and leaves no doubt about the voluntary nature of the mutilation. “Some fishermen try to make the evidence of capture disappear”explains Lamya Essemlali, the president of the French branch Sea Shepherd. “Fishermen have a regulatory obligation to declare these catches. But we are at about 1.5% of declarations, so the majority of fishermen do not declare. And so that the evidence never arrives on the beaches, some of them disembowel and gut these dolphins, in an attempt to sink them to the bottom of the water”says the president of the NGO.

“This is to avoid having real visibility of the extent of mortality on dolphins from fishing nets and to avoid the closure of fishing areas.”

Lamya Essemlali

on franceinfo

Pelagis, the observatory for the conservation of marine fauna, has identified more than 400 dead cetaceans since December 1, 2022, found on the beaches of France. But according to Sea Shepherd, there are actually many more dolphins killed. “More than 80% of dolphins killed sink at sea. Today, we are at just over 410 corpses found on the beaches since December 1, 2022. We must multiply this figure by five or even ten, so we are rather between 2,500 and 4,000 dolphins killed since December 1″, estimates the president of Sea Shepherd.

Sea Shepherd has already announced that it is filing a complaint, after the discovery on Saturday February 18, in the Bay of Biscay, of a mutilated and scarified dolphin. The mutilated and rescued dolphin bore the inscription “Sea Shepherd PD” (sic) engraved in his flesh.