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Nabarralde | Nabarra Papers
300
Dolphins Found Dead with Severe Wounds --Hendaia
Mila Parot Zubimendi
The "wall of death" drif nets most likely are responsible for
the death of 300 dolphins which were found with severe wounds
in the beaches of the Gulf of Biscay this week. They showed
cuts in the faces and amputations.
The dolphins
washed ashore were found on the coast between the Basque town
of Hendaia and Charente Maritime (southwest) in the French state,
said Anne Collet, the director of the Marine Center in La Rochelle,
Brittany.
Collet said
the dolphins washed ashore, which is common during winter, is
caused by the "fishing vessels catching with drift nets in the
same areas where dolphins feed themselves."
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Dolphins washed ashore. February 18, 2000 |
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The scientist
said the 300 dolphins are unlikely victims of the Erika oil
spill in December.
Fishermen rejected
Collet's accusation. "The dolphins being washed ashore was happening
long before fishing with drift nets began in 1975. In rare occassions
we caught dolphins by accident," said a fisherman from Donibane
Lohitzune.
More dead dolphins
have been found in beaches in Landes, Ondres, Contis, Soustons,
Biscarosse, Cap Ferret, Tremblade, and Island of Re.
In 1997, a
year of adverse weather and strong tempests, more than 900 dolphins
were found dead on the Gulf of Biscay's coast, between Brittany
and the Basque Country.
The death of
the 300 dolphins is being investigated but so far the culprits
remain unknown.
The "Wall
of Death" drift nets
Driftnets are
8-15 meter deep nets made of fine nylon mesh used to fish for
stocks of tuna, salmon, and squid. The nets are nearly transparent
and are set below the surface to drift overnight. Between 2-90
kms in length, driftnets function as hanging "walls of death"
for nearly everything they encounter.
Fleets from
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan formerly deployed some 50,000
kms of gillnet on a daily basis until the United Nations moratorium
which began in 1993. These fleets operated in the Pacific, Indian,
and Atlantic Oceans. Larger mesh nets were also used extensively
by these fleets to target billfish and albacore on a worldwide
basis. Despite the United Nations moratorium, pirate driftnetters
continue to wreak havoc on deep ocean ecosystems.
British, French
and Irish fishermen use drift nets to catch tuna in the Bay
of Biscay and other parts of the Atlantic. This sparked a fish
war in the Bay of Biscay in 1994 when several Cornish fishing
boats had their nets cut away by Spanish vessels. The Spanish
use poles and lines with hooks but can catch only 200 tuna a
day - five times less than vessels using nets.
On June 8,
1998, the European Union Council of Fisheries Ministers agreed
to a phase-out and ban of driftnet fishing by 1 January 2002.
The ban will apply to all waters under the jurisdiction of EU
Member States (excluding the Baltic) and to all EU- flagged
vessels fishing on the high seas. Fisheries in the Mediterranean
and the Northeast Atlantic for species such as swordfish, tuna
and sharks are covered by the ban.
February 2000
Translation
by Gigi Bidarte
Mila
Parot Zubimendi is a law student and an environment activist.
She lives in Miarritze.
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