At least 910 dolphins have washed up on Atlantic beaches since mid-December. This is the new count established this Friday by the Pelagis oceanographic observatory of La Rochelle, which recorded a new wave "intense" of more than 400 strandings for a week.

"About 420 strandings of small cetaceans" were recorded on the Atlantic coast between March 10 and 17, including 120 on the weekend of March 11 and 12 alone, an "unprecedented" figure, Pelagis detailed, adding that these were censuses still "unconsolidated". "The condition of the carcasses seems to be very varied, indicating that drift conditions have reduced dead dolphins to the coast for only a few days to several weeks," says Pelagis, who has been recording cetacean strandings on the Atlantic coast since 1970.

850 strandings on average each winter between 2017 and 2020

"The few carcasses examined reveal for the most part traces of capture in fishing gear," says the organization that associates the CNRS and the University of La Rochelle.

An "intense" first wave occurred at the beginning of the year, with more than 360 strandings recorded from mid-December 2022 to the end of January 2023, before a relative lull (130 strandings between early February and early March), linked according to Pelagis to "less favorable" conditions of drift of carcasses towards the coast.

From 2017 to 2020, there were an average of 850 strandings each winter. The majority of strandings usually occur in February and March, when dolphins move closer to shore to find their food and therefore have the most interaction with fishermen, according to environmental groups.

A temporary interruption of fishing requested by NGOs

Faced with NGOs and scientists calling for a temporary interruption of fishing, the government has so far favoured measures to document the phenomenon and technical solutions, such as on-board cameras or repellents on boats.



At the end of February, the public rapporteur of the Council of State came out in favour of the implementation within six months of spatiotemporal closures of certain fisheries deemed responsible for the death of many dolphins. The decision of the highest French administrative court, seized by several environmental associations, is expected soon.

  • Planet
  • Dolphin
  • Animals
  • Fishing
  • Littoral
  • Atlantic Ocean
  • Bordeaux
  • Gironde
  • New Aquitaine
  • Aquitaine
  • La Rochelle
  • Poitou-Charentes
  • Nantes