Wow Trawler Caught 100,000 Dead Fish Off Coast

Sea Shepherd France said it did not believe the incident was accidental, but rather an attempt by the trawler to discharge a type of fish that it did not want to process, a practice known as discharging

bycatch which is banned under EU fishing rules.

According to report, Dutch-owned trawler FV Margiris, the world's second-biggest fishing vessel, shed over 100,000 dead fish into the Atlantic Ocean off France, forming a floating carpet of carcasses that environmental campaigners spotted.

France fisheries minister Annick Girardin said the images were shocking and that there would be an investigation into the circumstances that led to the incident.

The EU Commissioner for environment, oceans and fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevicius, also said he was seeking “exhaustive information and evidence about the case”.

The spill, which happened in early Thursday, was caused by a rupture in the trawler's net, said fishing industry group Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association (PFA), which represents the vessel's owner. In a statement, the group called the spill a “very rare occurrence”.

“In line with EU law, this has been recorded in the vessel’s log book and reported to the authorities of the vessel’s flag state, Lithuania,” it said. It added that the dead fish would be subtracted from the vessel’s quota.

An environmental group disputed that account, saying it was an illegal discharge of over 100,000 unwanted fish.

The French arm of campaign group Sea Shepherd first published images of the spill, showing the ocean's surface covered by a 3,000 sq m (32,300 sq ft) blanket of blue whiting, a sub-species of cod, used to mass-produce fish fingers, fish oil and meal.

Trawlers like the Margiris use drag nets more than a kilometre long and process the fish in onboard factories, a practice heavily criticised by environmentalists.

After protests by activists, the Margiris was forced to leave Australian waters in 2012. The vessel had a quota to haul 18,000 tonnes of fish from the sea but was banned by the then Labor environment minister Tony Burke following a public outcry.

“At the sight of the images shared by @SeaShepherdFran, I asked the National Fisheries Monitoring Center to shed light on this subject in order to identify the causes of these important discards of fish. Of course, these images are shocking,” Annick Girardin wrote following the revelation of the incident.

Traffic data by marinetraffic.com on Friday showed the vessel, which is owned by the Dutch company Parleviliet & Van der Plas and sails under the flag of Lithuania, was still engaged in fishing activities off the French coast.