ISLAMABAD/PARIS: A top French administrative court ordered the government to prohibit fishing in parts of the Atlantic to save dolphins that have washed up dead in their hundreds.
The move by the State Council, the highest court on government issues, comes days after the oceanographic institute said that at least 910 dolphins had washed up on the Atlantic coast since the start of the winter.
Over a week, more than 400 marine mammals were found stranded along the coast, an “unprecedented” number, the Pelagis oceanographic observatory based in La Rochelle said in a report.
Protect dolphins
Many environmental NGOs, including Sea Shepherd, had filed a legal complaint against the French government over the dolphin and porpoise deaths. They said it wasn’t doing enough to save the species, which are at hazard of disappearing from parts of the Bay of Biscay along the Atlantic coast.
Several dolphins showed wounds consistent with being caught in nets, other fishing equipment, and boat engines.
Several died in February and March when dolphins move closer to the coast looking for food and are more likely to come in contact with fishing operations.
The government of France has so far held back from imposing fishing restrictions, opting instead for solutions mitigating the impact of industrial fishing on dolphins, such as onboard cameras and loud sound equipment to drive the dolphins away.
But the State Council ruled that “acoustic deterrence” instruments on fishing boats “don’t guarantee a favorable state of conservation for small cetacean species”, including porpoises and dolphins.
It said both species were threatened with extinction, “at least regionally”.
The court gave the French government six months to establish the no-fishing zones and told it to boost the monitoring of accidental capture of dolphins, which it said was still approximate.
