“Mutilated and gutted” dolphins found on beaches on the Atlantic coast.
The ocean defense NGO Sea Shepherd France announced on Monday "to file a complaint against X" after this umpteenth discovery.
"The sea never stops rejecting the corpses of dolphins, captured by fishing gear", lamented the association, which identified six dead animals last week, in a press release accompanied by photos, also broadcast on the social networks.
Every winter, hundreds of cetacean corpses wash up on the Atlantic coast.
Accidental captures by fishing gear are one of the main causes of mortality.
6 severely mutilated and disembowelled dolphin corpses found in recent days: @SeaShepherdFran files a complaint against X.
To find out more: https://t.co/bcbTYFKGRj@HerveBerville @EmmanuelMacron @Elisabeth_Borne @MFesneau @ChristopheBechu #seashepherdorigins
— Sea Shepherd France (@SeaShepherdFran) January 16, 2023
Sea Shepherd denounces "a disgrace for our country", regretting the lack of "concrete measures" on the part of the State.
Contacted by AFP, the president of Sea Shepherd France, Lamya Essemlali, indicated that the complaint would be filed on Tuesday.
This one, which also concerns the discovery of a dolphin in Vendée, at the beginning of January, aims at article L415-3 of the Environmental Code which condemns the "attack on the conservation of non-domestic animal species".
More than 280 corpses already recorded in 2023
Since 2016, the Pelagis observatory has observed a worsening of this phenomenon which is more than 30 years old.
On Monday, he alerted on his website to “a new intense episode of mortality (…) observed on the Atlantic coast”, “particularly early” – usually, excess mortality rates are recorded between February and March.
More than 280 corpses, 90% of which were common dolphins, have already been identified this year.
The majority “showed traces of capture in fishing gear”.
In 2020, France was condemned for failing to protect dolphins following a previous complaint by Sea Shepherd.
The administrative court of Paris had considered that the State had “delayed in implementing concrete actions in view of the finding of recurring episodes (…) of excess mortality of cetaceans on the Atlantic coast, in particular in the Bay of Biscay”.
The same year, the European Commission had opened an infringement procedure, judging that France was not respecting its obligations towards this protected species.