Approximately 900 dolphins have reportedly washed up on France's western coast since the start of the winter, according to the Pelagis oceanographic observatory. 

Last week alone, unprecedentedly, more than 400 dolphins were reportedly found stranded along the coast.

Early inspections showed that many of them had only recently died and others had been dead for weeks. Most of them exhibited injuries from fishing nets and other fishing equipment seeming to be the cause of death. 

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In the 3 year span from 2017 to 2020, the dead washed-up dolphins amounted to a total of 850; the numbers usually spiked in late winter in February and March when dolphins move closer to the coast in search of food and get incapacitated by fishing equipment in the process. 

Many specialists and activists have recurrently called for the temporary suspension of fishing operations during these months, but to no avail. Marginal measures adopted by the government such as onboard cameras or repellents only mitigated the dolphin casualties but didn't adequately address the problem. 

After the filing of a legal case against the government by a number of environmental protection organizations, the Council is anticipated to make a formal judgment soon.

An interim ban was already been approved in February by the commissioner of the State Council, France's highest court for judicial issues criminalizing some forms of fishing,  that were assessed to pose a risk to dolphins. 

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