Bay of Biscay: weather disrupts resumption of fishing after a month-long stop to preserve dolphins

About 9,000 common dolphins die each year from accidental captures on the French Atlantic coast, nearly double the sustainable level, according to Ciem, an international think tank. Therefore, the State Council decision ordered the government to close certain areas for one month to vessels of eight meters or more in length, equipped with certain nets, in order to “limit the accidental deaths of dolphins and porpoises.” A measure not used since 1945.

This period had just ended and the fishermen were eager to return to the sea, but the weather played a cruel joke on them, forcing them to stay at the pier again. “The weather is not very good. We will remain on land and will not be able to work,” Alexandre Le Corre, a fisherman from Lesconil (Finistère), explained to AFP. The same story happened in Capbreton (Landes) with Aurélien Soren.

Challenging the measure

Fishermen are already questioning these bans. According to the latest Seawell Secretariat monitoring bulletin, from January 16 to February 15, there were more small cetaceans stranded on shore this year than last year: 164 dolphins compared to 130. However, according to the Seawell Secretariat, these figures are treat with caution.

Olivier Van Canneit, a biologist at the Pelagis Observatory who coordinates the national stranding network, calls for “waiting until we have estimates of total winter mortality” and stresses that the years are not comparable. Last year, “the conditions for strandings were almost zero, so there were quite a few of them, whereas there we had very favorable conditions for carcass drift, but we didn’t have big spikes in strandings,” he elaborates. Before clarifying: “Almost no animal dissected between the Loire and the Gironde died as a result of accidental capture. This is the real result. »

During this closure, Olivier Mercier was pleased that his two vessels, over 14 m in length, were repatriated to Saint-Jean-de-Luz (Pyrénées-Atlantiques). “We were not allowed to do more, do more work or put our employees to work,” he stressed.

450 ships compensated

To compensate for the losses of the 450 vessels affected by the ban, from Finistère to the Basque Country, Ecological Transition Minister Christophe Bechoux promised compensation of “80-85%” of turnover depending on the types of fisheries, with payments initially due in March. But on Tuesday the national fisheries committee deplored the “slowness of government authorities in approving compensation agreements.” The government also promised assistance to the fish trading sector by reimbursing “up to 75% of their losses.” In addition, the “Evil Fishermen” collective will ask for additional compensation in addition to what was already promised by the ministry, “since there were strandings while we were not at sea.”

To other solutions?

In principle, this closure should be extended for the next two winters. But the president of the interministerial committee for fisheries of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques and Landes, Serge Larzabal, wants to “demonstrate that this is the wrong answer.” “We will do everything we can to be able to continue working next year,” with deterrent devices installed on the boats to “minimize accidental captures as much as possible,” he assures.

Clara Ullrich, fisheries assessment coordinator at Ifremer, emphasizes “that the current ban is an emergency measure” in an interview published on the institute’s website last week. “Alternatives to such annual closures are being explored,” “which would combine technological solutions, other methods of spatio-temporal closure or reduction of fishing effort,” she adds, also citing “incentive measures tried in other regions of the world.”