Trawler Spilling 100,000 Dead Fish Off France Ignites Outrage

French maritime minister Annick Girardin has called for an investigation into the alleged dumping this week of 100,000 dead fish off the country’s Atlantic Coast by a Dutch-owned trawler. The environmental activist group Sea Shepherd released footage showing the carpet of floating carcasses covering an estimated 3,000 square meters (32,300 square feet). The spill of blue whiting, a species used to produce fish fingers and other products and which is subject to quotas, was said to have been caused by a break early Thursday in one of the trawler’s nets. The industry group that represents the vessel’s owner reported it as a “fishing incident.” Campaigners with Sea Shepherd France, though, disputed what the Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association called a “very rare occurrence.” The environmentalists said it appeared the fish had been dumped in a bid by the vessel’s operators to discharge a type of catch it didn’t want to process, a practice banned under EU rules. Virginijus Sinkevicius, the European Union