Mediterranean Sea: swimming with dolphins is prohibited

Swimming with dolphins in the open Mediterranean Sea is a dream for many people. The practice has been banned in France since January 1, 2021, but three companies on the Côte d’Azur still offered the activity to tourists. Their boats were seized in July 2022 by the authorities. It is, in fact, forbidden to approach cetaceans within 100 m and to swim with them. The offending professionals claim that they were not too close. “When [les dauphins] come, indeed, what we were doing, for the people who wanted it (…) they slip into the water, they watch them go by and they come back up”assures Magalie Grimontof the ship “Annett“

Environmental associations have alerted the courts and denounce methods of tracking with aerial means. “Practices of harassment of dolphins by planes, which then warned companies swimming with dolphins which were chasing the schools of dolphins (…) it is a real market”alert Élodie Martinie Coustyhead of the ocean, seas and coasts network at France Nature Environnement.