The NGO Sea Shepherd suspects one of the four factory ships present off La Rochelle to be at the origin of these releases of blue merlans, an illegal practice.
Le Monde
The images give to see what looks like a large gray tide. Thousands of dead fish have been discovered 300 kilometers off La Rochelle by NGO Sea Shepherd Thursday, February 3rd.
Images in support, the organization counts not less than 100,000 blue merlans, “usually for the manufacture of the superimi,” she explains.
That’s what is happening right now in the Gulf of Gascony off La Rochelle. Four ships-plants operate … https://t.co/q4a2acumhp
For the President of Sea Shepherd France, Lamya Essemlali, interviewed by France 3 , this dead fish bench is the result of” accessory catches ” , fish reassembled by the fillets of vessels that do not correspond to the species sought. “It encloses them and if these fish that are not targeted by the ship, so they reject them,” says Sea Shepherd
If the blue merlans fishery is allowed, their rejection at sea is not. Factory vessels are, indeed, to return to the port and to declare all of their cargo.
At the moment the images have been captured, four ships-factories were 300 kilometers from La Rochelle, including Margiris, the second largest trawler in the world (143 meters), capable of treating more than 250 tonnes of fish by day.
According to Lamya Estemlali, the contacts passed with the captains of the boats did not give anything, “They all denied, all four. But we are sure it is one of the four.”
Open surveys
Interpellated on Twitter by the journalist and activist Hugo Clément, the Minister of the Sea, Annick Girardin, said on the same social network having “asked the National Fisheries Monitoring Center to shed light on this subject in order to Identify the causes of these important discharges of fish “. “Of course, these shock pictures,” she added.
Madam Minister of the Sea @annickgirardin Will you act to stop this massacre off our coast?
Contact by France 3, the departmental direction of the territories and the Sea of Charente-Maritime also indicated that the Ministry of the Sea had seized the file and intended to diligently investigate.
The case is, moreover, lift up at European level. Virginijus Sinkevicius, European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, announced on Twitter the opening of a survey” with the national authorities of the fishing zone and the presumed state of the vessel’s flag, in order to obtain information about the case “.