It's a big fish that Paul Watson's environmental organization is attacking.
In this case, the second largest trawler in the world, 142 m long: the Margiris.
The NGO Sea Shepherd filed a complaint on Tuesday against this vessel for non-compliance with the obligation to land captured species, while the vessel declared a fishing incident that led to the rejection of tens of thousands of dead fish.
The complaint was filed in Lorient, Sea Shepherd said.
"We gave them different elements on what we could see on the spot," said Lamya Essemlali, president of Sea Shepherd France.
The NGO filmed and photographed on Thursday a huge school of dead blue whiting floating in the Bay of Biscay, off La Rochelle.
VIDEO.
School of dead fish in the Bay of Biscay: "common practices" among shipowners
“When some vessels catch a very large quantity of fish with very low market value, such as blue whiting, they reject them to make room with higher added value, which is strictly illegal,” says Lamya Essemlali.
The European association of pelagic freezer trawlers (PFA) explained this rejection, declared by the factory vessel to the competent authorities, by a "substantial and unusual density in this area, of the school of fish targeted" which led to a rupture of the trawl.
Minister calls for investigation
"Faced with this incident, the Margiris has put in place drastic measures to prevent it from happening again," says the PFA.
"The trawl tows are already greatly reduced and the filling sensors have been updated to be in line with the exceptional density of the schools in this area", according to the press release.
Unfortunate incident in Bay of Biscay resulting in massive discards of fish.@EU_Commission reacts immediately.
We are launching an inquiry to national authorities of the fishing area & presumed flag state of the vessel, to get exhaustive information & evidence about the case.
— Virginijus Sinkevičius (@VSinkevicius) February 3, 2022
The Minister of the Sea Annick Girardin announced on Friday that she had requested the opening of an administrative investigation.
She also clarified that the accident had been declared in the vessel's logbook and that these fish would be removed from her quota.
European Commissioner for Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevicius also announced via Twitter the opening of an investigation.
"There was an unauthorized discharge", observes the Ministry of the Sea. flag, in this case Lithuania, with a copy to the European Commission to ensure that the flag State takes legal or administrative action" against the vessel, according to the same source.