The Dutch-owned Margiris supertrawler, the second largest fishing vessel in the world, dumped more than 100,000 dead blue whiting in the Bay of Biscay off France’s Atlantic coast near La Rochelle, last Thursday.

The Pelagic Freeze-Trawler Association (PFA) — which represents the vessel’s owner — released a statement on Friday saying that around 5.50am on 3 February 2022, an amount of blue whiting was involuntarily released into the sea from the Margiris vessel, due to a rupture in the cod-end part of its net. Such an accident is a rare occurrence and in this case was caused by the unexpectedly large size of the fish caught. In line with EU law, the incident and the quantities lost have been recorded in the vessel’s log book and reported to the authorities of the vessel’s flag state, Lithuania.

The PFA also stated that blue whiting is a target species which is of great value to our members. Moreover, it is a quota species and as such the lost fish will be deducted from the vessel’s quota. It is not in our members’ interest to lose any fish they take on board and we regret that this fish will now not be available for human consumption. The Margiris has implemented drastic measures to prevent similar accidents in the future. The trawls have been adapted so that they are able to deal with the exceptional size of the fish currently in the area concerned.

The Sea Shepherd France environmental group filmed the fish on Thursday, saying they covered an area of about 3,000 sq m (32,300 sq ft). They characterized the spill as an illegal discharge of unwanted fish.

France’s maritime minister, Annick Girardin, described the images as “shocking.” The minister said she had asked the country’s fishing surveillance body to investigate.

The European commissioner for environment, oceans and fisheries, Virginijus Sinkevičius, also said he would launch an inquiry with fishing authorities in the region and the flag state of the Margiris, “to get exhaustive information & evidence about the case.”

Super trawler sheds 100,000 dead fish off coast of France

Thanks to Alaric Bond and Larry Witmer for contributing to this post.