(Nouméa) The administrative court of the French archipelago of New Caledonia ruled in favor on Thursday of an association which called for a ban on shark killing campaigns, relaunched at the start of 2023 in Nouméa in order to protect swimmers after two attacks, one of which deadly.
Justice annulled the decision taken by the mayor of Nouméa, Sonia Lagarde, “to continue preventive campaigns to regulate tiger and bulldog sharks around the beaches located on the territory of the municipality”, according to the judgment made public Thursday.
The administrative court for its part considered that the decision to carry out systematic shark slaughter campaigns “was disproportionate with regard to the aim of protecting human life pursued, especially since no precise scientific study has been carried out. been carried out to know the state of the populations of the targeted species, nor the effects on the environment of such samples.
The Southern province of New Caledonia was also targeted by an appeal from the Caledonian association Ensemble pour la Planet (EPLP). The administrative judge also banned the killing of sharks, this time in maritime reserves.
The community, competent in environmental matters, had authorized the town hall of Nouméa to conduct these fishing campaigns in the marine reserves close to the coast. However, “the principle of a reserve is the prohibition of all fishing”, we can read in the judgment consulted by AFP.
If the administrative court recognizes the existence of exemptions, these must be “limited” and “proportionate”, which for the court was not the case.
On January 29, 2023, a teacher was seriously injured by a shark while she was swimming about a hundred meters from the edge of a beach in a tourist district of Nouméa. Three weeks later, a new attack claimed the life of an Australian tourist, in the same place.
According to the ocean protection association Longitude 181, a total of 127 sharks – 83 tigers and 44 bulldogs – were killed during culling campaigns in 2023. A total of 203 animals – 105 tigers and 98 bulldogs – were killed. been slaughtered since 2019, when shark fishing was authorized by the South province following an attack which seriously injured a 10-year-old child in Nouméa.
The mayor of Nouméa then decided to ban swimming throughout the municipality and to carry out monthly campaigns to cull tiger and bull sharks, two species of large sharks, most often involved in accidents with humans.