Sea Shepherd
Sea Shepherd’s Operation Dolphin ByCatch on the Atlantic Coast of France. An average of 6,000 dolphins are killed each year just in France’s west coast by large industrial trawlers and fishing vessels, but the problem is about all Europe. That number could be as high as 10,000 dolphins, according to the scientific Pelagis Observatory, based in La Rochelle. This is much more than the dolphin massacres of the Danish Faeroe Islands and Japan’s Taiji Cove combined. These vessels target sea bass spawning grounds during the breeding season, but also catch dolphins that typically live alongside them. Most of the dolphins die in the nets or from wounds inflicted by fishermen on board the vessels.
On this way the extinction is closer, according to Pelagis, the scientific observatory of La Rochelle, since the beginning of the year 1000 dolphins has been found dead along the French coast. Year after year the Pelagis Observatory has published alarming reports about the declining dolphin populations, including a 2016 report signed by the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) that predicts that the mortality inflicted on dolphins by fishing vessels jeopardizes the survival of the population in the medium term.
However the French State has not acted on the scientists’ warnings. Sea Shepherd has brought big awareness to this mass killing and has been reporting during three month in the European Atlantic sea last winter.
