For a month, nearly 500 French boats will remain at the dock between the Basque Country and the tip of Brittany. This measure decided by the State aims to curb accidental captures of dolphins and porpoises.
Fishing will be banned for a month in the Bay of Biscay, which stretches from northern Spain to Brittany. The measure, which takes effect Monday January 22, lasts until February 20 and will affect nearly 500 French fishing boats – as well as foreign fleets – eight meters or more equipped with certain nets. This measure aims to curb accidental captures of dolphins and porpoises, which have increased on the Atlantic coast since 2016. Fishermen and the entire industry, who will be compensated by the State, denounce a useless measure to fight against the phenomenon while that environmental associations and NGOs want to go even further. Franceinfo takes stock of this measure and its consequences.
1 What will happen for a month?
Fishing will be banned for one month (January 22 – February 20) in the Bay of Biscay, between the Basque Country and the tip of Brittany. This zone “covers more than 75% of French waters on the Atlantic-Channel coast”according to the State Secretariat for the Sea. The measure concernsFrench fishing boats of eight meters or more equipped with certain nets (pelagic trawl, bottom pair trawl, trammel net, set gill net) as well as foreign vessels. It does not apply to all fishermen or to all activities, but nearly 500 French boats are concerned.
This measure, which aims to curb accidental captures of dolphins and porpoises in the Atlantic Ocean, comes after a long legal standoff. Requested by environmental defense associations, the Council of State ordered the government in March 2023 to “close, within six months, fishing zones in the Bay of Biscay for appropriate periods”. In October, the State issued a decree to ban fishing for one month in 2024, 2025 and 2026 in the Bay of Biscay, while including several exemptions.
The Council of State suspended them in December, ruling that “these exemptions [étaient] too important for the closure of fishing to have a sufficient effect on accidental catches to have a chance of reducing the mortality of small cetaceans to a sustainable level by 2024.
2 What does this have to do with dolphins?
This temporary ban on fishing responds to a growing problem: accidental captures of dolphins and porpoises have increased on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean since 2016. The French Pelagis observatory estimates that nearly 1,500 cetaceans were found dead between 1er December 2022 and April 30, 2023 on the French coasts. The winter period has been identified as the deadliest for dolphins. “For the thousand strandings recorded on average each year on the Atlantic coast, between 5,000 and 10,000 dolphins actually died at sea. Most of the carcasses sink steeply and do not drift to the coast.notes Olivier Van Canneyt, biologist at the Pelagis observatory, on the CNRS website.
“These deaths correspond to an annual anthropogenic harvest rate of 1 to 5%. Well above the commonly accepted threshold of 1% additional mortality”notes the scientist, while the dolphin population is estimated at around 200,000 mammals in the Bay of Biscay in winter.
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In an opinion published in May 2020, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), a reference body, recommended implementing fishing closures and equipping boats with “pingers”, acoustic repellents for keep the dolphins away. “The consensus is that between 5 and 10,000 cetaceans die [chaque année] and at this level of mortality, the risks are real and proven for the survival of the species”, alerted the Minister of Ecological Transition, Christophe Béchu on Wednesday.
3 How does the State intend to help fishermen?
The government announced that the fishermen would be compensated. These aids “will vary between 80 and 85% of turnover for all boats over eight meters affected by this fishing ban”, declared Christophe Béchu on TF1 on Friday. They will be paid “as fast as possible”. The State must also come to the aid of the rest of the sector: fishmongers, transporters, fishmongers.
The fish merchants, who process the fresh fish landed in the auctions, estimate their losses at more than 60 million euros. For them, theaid will not be calculated on the basis of turnover but “gross operating surplus”, and will go “up to 75% of their losses”. “We want to keep a French fishing industry and reconcile it with the imperatives of preserving biodiversity,” explained Christophe Béchu. The Atlantic Maritime Prefecture, for its part, promised patrols “a little more present than usual”, in particular to ensure that fishermen respect the ban.
4 What do fishermen and NGOs say?
The industry denounces an unfair ban and is worried about the future of French fishing. “It is not by blocking the boats along the quay that we will be able to find solutions which will make it possible to avoid these captures which, I remind you, are minimal”judged Thursday on franceinfo Olivier Le Nézet, president of the National Committee for Maritime Fisheries and Marine Farming, who is preparing to submit “appeals on the merits” against this ban.
“This will have a huge impact on the entire industry, from the fisherman to the fishmonger’s stall. For the fish trade, which is an essential link in the industry, it is a disaster,” said Frédéric Toulliou, president of the French fish trade union (UMF) and the inter-professional association France Filière Pêche.
The various NGOs which had contacted the Council of State – Sea Shepherd France, France Nature Environnement, the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO), Defense of Aquatic Environments – welcomed this ban on fishing in a press release. “However, scientific advice shows that we will have to go further to ensure a viable future for these protected species,” they judge.