Fishing ban helps prevent mass dolphin deaths in Bay of Biscay

• Frank Renout

  France correspondent

Large numbers of dead dolphins have been washing up along the French Bay of Biscay for years. They end up in fishing nets at sea and become entangled in them. They can no longer reach the surface to breathe, causing them to suffocate. Fishermen throw the animals back into the sea, injured or dead.

This year, for the first time, the French government has announced a temporary fishing ban for a certain category of boats. This ban applied from the end of January to the end of February. And it appears to have had an effect. The number of dolphins that ended up in nets and washed up dead during that period fell drastically. This is evident from research by the Pelagis Institute, which is affiliated with the University of La Rochelle.

In the winter of 2022-2023, 70 percent of all dead dolphins examined had signs of injury from fishing nets. During the fishing ban this winter, only 4 percent had such injuries. “The number of animals that died in fishing nets has therefore fallen enormously,” says researcher Hélène Peltier.

The results are a great boost for French environmental organizations. They have been complaining to the government for years about the dolphin deaths off the French Atlantic coast.

Every winter, hundreds of dead dolphins wash up in the Bay of Biscay. Last year a ‘record’ was set: almost 1,500 dead dolphins and related animals ended up on the beaches and rocks in the area in five months: that is ten per day. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

“If a thousand dolphins wash up along the coast, 5,000 to 10,000 are actually dead: most simply sink to the seabed,” says biologist Olivier van Canneyt of the Pelagis research center. He and his colleagues speak of an annual massacre.

Washed up dolphins and related animals along the Atlantic coast:

It is estimated that around 200,000 dolphins winter in the Bay of Biscay every year. The water temperature there is moderate and the fish that they eat also swim in the area. But these are often the same fish that French fishermen also come for. And they regularly use nets that the dolphins get entangled in.

The dolphin mortality had been going on for years without the government intervening. The European Commission has repeatedly reprimanded the French government about this, partly because it is a protected species. In July 2022, the committee requested the use of sonar equipment and cameras on French fishing boats to combat dolphin ‘by-catch’. But Paris hardly moved.

In 2021, three environmental organizations went to the French Council of State. That did have an effect. The council agreed with the organizations last year and urged the government to take action. A zone with a fishing ban should be established for a month in winter.

The government must follow such advice. But the authorities decided to introduce a whole series of exceptions for certain groups of fishermen. These exceptions were subsequently dismissed by the Council of State. “In this way it is not possible to sufficiently reduce the mortality of animals.” Finally, the French government announced that the Bay of Biscay would become a fish-free zone from January 22 to February 20 this year.

The environmental organizations called this a step in the right direction. But it wouldn’t be enough. “By stopping fishing for just a month, dolphins will continue to wash up en masse. Such a ban should last longer,” Défense des Milieux Aquatiques said. The dolphins usually winter in the Bay of Biscay from December to April. Environmental organization France Nature Environment calculated that a three-month fishing ban would reduce dolphin mortality by an average of 44 percent.

The French government does not want to go that far yet. The one-month fishing ban will be repeated in the coming years.