Following a surge in deaths of porpoises in French waters off the Atlantic coast, the government has taken the advice of environmentalists and other marine mammal stakeholders to temporarily ban commercial fishing in the Bay of Biscay, a body of water centred on the port of Bordeaux and extending from the Breton port of Finistère in the north to the Atlantic border with Spain. The month-long ban will last from 22 January to 20 February, covering all French and foreign fishing vessels longer than 8 meters in overall length. This will directly affect some 450 French-flagged vessels and an uncertain number of foreign ones.
Environmental interests have long argued for a winter ban on fishing, at a time when porpoises are in the bay in higher numbers and get caught or tangled in fishing gear or fatally struck by boats. Such incidents are accidental, as there is no significant market for porpoise meat, but they are avoidable, researchers say, by measures that temporarily lower harvesting activity. Reports indicate that as many as 9,000 porpoises die from vessel harvesting activity each year. The industry opposes the ban, arguing that the stock or population of porpoises is not low enough to be classified as endangered in any way, and that the industry could suffer a loss of 60 million euros from the ban. The French government has promised aid to the affected fishermen, in the form of “partial unemployment measures and specific aid, if necessary,” which industry leaders denounce as insufficient. They blamed “extremist NGOs” for any “social problems” that might arise and threatened to ignore the ban.