A spill of over 100,000 dead fish in the Atlantic Ocean off the French coast was described by the Minister of the Sea of France as “shocking,” in an incident that caught the attention of environmental activist groups.
The French arm of Sea Shepherd – a non-profit marine conservation activism organization – posted photos of the leak on its Facebook page. twitter on Thursday (3).
“Here’s what’s happening right now in the Bay of Biscay off the coast of La Rochelle,” the post said. “Four factory boats operate in this area, including the Margiris – the second largest trawler in the world (banned in Australia).”
Images posted by Sea Shepherd show a surprising mass of dead fish – which are called blue whiting, a subspecies of cod – floating in the water. The Dutch-owned Margiris has been described as a “gigantic super trawler” by Greenpeace.
The Pelagic Freeze-Trawler Association (PFA) – which represents the vessel’s owner – released a statement on Friday addressing the incident and said it “fully understands the emotions these images can bring.”
The PFA further said that “we would like to clarify that at around 5:50 am on 3 February 2022, a quantity of blue whiting was involuntarily released into the sea by the vessel Margiris, due to a rupture in the tail part of its net. An accident of this type is a rare occurrence and in this case it was caused by the unexpectedly large size of the fish caught.”
“In accordance with the legislation of the European Unionthe incident and the amounts lost were recorded in the ship’s logbook and reported to the authorities of the ship’s flag State, Lithuania,” he said.
In a statement to CNN, the PFA said that “blue whiting is a target species (not by-catch) that is of great value to our members. We can say that it is not in the interests of our members to lose the fish. Lost fish will be deducted from the vessel’s quota. PFA members fish for human consumption only, and we regret that the fish is no longer available for that purpose.”
Annick Girardin – the French Minister for Fisheries and Maritime Affairs – said the sight of the dead fish was “shocking” and called on the national fisheries surveillance authority to launch an investigation to “shed light on this issue so that we can identify the causes of the significant dumping of fish”.
In a post on Twitter, Girardin also added that “France supports sustainable fishing and this is not reflected here. If an infraction has occurred, sanctions will be applied against the person responsible, who will be identified”.
Virginijus Sinkevičius – European Union Commissioner for EnvironmentOceans and Fisheries – also commented on the case and called it an “unfortunate incident in the Bay of Biscay”.
On Twitter, he said the European Union Commission would “react immediately” and is launching an inquiry into national authorities in the fishing area and the alleged flag status of the vessel to obtain exhaustive information and evidence on the case.
Lamya Essemlali – head of Sea Shepherd’s French arm – told Reuters she believes the fish were deliberately discarded.
Source: CNN Brasil
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