La Rochelle: The French government will temporarily ban almost all commercial fishing in the Bay of Biscay to protect dolphins, much to the dismay of the industry.
The month-long ban off the country’s West coast – the first since the end of World War II – is set to begin Monday and applies to both French and foreign fishermen.
It follows calls by environmental activists to protect the marine mammals, pointing to a surge in dolphin deaths on the Atlantic coast.
From Finistere in the extreme west of Brittany to the Spanish border, fishing will cease almost entirely until February 20.
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CIEM, a scientific body that tracks North Atlantic ecosystems, has for years urged a winter pause for some indiscriminate fishing techniques, meeting fierce resistance from industrial fishermen.
The organisation estimates that around 9,000 dolphins die each year off the French Atlantic coast as a result of accidental capture.
The ban concerns boats longer than eight metres and will affect around 450 French vessels.
Fishermen and industry groups decried the temporary measure.
“It’s absurd to stop businesses like this for a month,” Raymond Millet, a fisherman from La Rochelle, a city on France’s west coast, told AFP.
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