The Council of State confirmed Monday “the need for a closure of fishing in the Bay of Biscay” for four weeks “during the winter”a measure aimed at protecting dolphins from accidental capture by fishing boats.
Following several appeals from environmental and animal rights NGOs, the highest administrative court had already forced France to close the Bay of Biscay to fishing for all vessels over 8 meters from January 22 to February 20 : this measure applied in 2024 and is likely to be renewed in 2025 and 2026.
In a new decision on Monday, the Council of State confirms “the need for a fishing closure” to protect dolphins and the harbor porpoise in this area, stressing that scientific observations for the winter period of 2024 had shown “a significant drop in mortality of small cetaceans due to accidental capture”.
The Council of State had already decided in favor of this winter moratorium in December 2023 after being urgently contacted by several environmental defense associations, including France Nature Environnement (FNE) and Sea Sheperd France.
He had suspended government exemptions granted to fishermen (authorized to work after installation of repellent devices or cameras) considered to be “too wide”. These suspensions led to a first effective closure of fishing in the Bay of Biscay at the beginning of 2024.
This new decision, rendered on the merits of the case, confirms the need for a “closure of fishing in the Bay of Biscay for a period of four weeks during the winter in order to guarantee a favorable conservation status for the common dolphin, the bottlenose dolphin and the harbor porpoise”specifies the Council in a press release.
The Council also recalls that the European Commission took a similar measure last September banning fishing in the Bay of Biscay “for all vessels, French and foreign, over 8 meters using pelagic trawls, bottom pair trawls, pelagic seines, set gillnets, trammel nets or combined trammel nets and gillnets”.
This measure places all fishermen working in this area on an equal footing.
However, the latter, while “taking note” of the decision of the Council of State, maintain Monday evening their “opposition on the merits” to such closures: they particularly regret that the highest French administrative court “did not agree to the maintenance of exemptions for ships equipped with mitigating devices or cameras”according to a press release from the National Committee for Maritime Fisheries and Marine Farming (CNPMEM).
“We are resigned. We are in a completely schizophrenic system. It’s absurd. We should be helped to find solutions to no longer capture dolphins and maintain French fishing, not prohibit us from working”lamented to AFP Olivier Mercier, boss of two fishing boats (equipped with dolphin-repelling devices) in Arcachon.
“Judicial closures will never provide solutions for the fishing industry in the Bay of Biscay”estimates the CNPMEM, which declares itself “vigilant on the sustainability of compensation for fishermen in 2025 and 2026” in a tense national budgetary context.