Environmental legal firm ClientEarth is challenging the Spanish government in court over its alleged failure to address whale and dolphin bycatch in its fisheries.
The group has taken legal action asking Spain’s National High Court of Justice to force the Spanish government to implement bycatch monitoring for cetaceans, adopt mitigation and prevention measures, and adequately fund those efforts.
“The legal framework to protect cetaceans exists, but it must now be implemented,” ClientEarth lawyer Arthur Meeus said in a release. “States have an obligation to properly monitor these incidental catches and adopt effective measures when they pose a conservation risk to protected species. Spain must now turn its legal commitments into concrete measures and effectively reduce this avoidable cetacean mortality.”
The group sent a letter to Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (MAPA) in June alleging that Spanish regulators were not implementing E.U. monitoring and conservation requirements in the Cantabrian and North-Western fishing grounds. Nearly 30 cetacean species have been reported in the region, the group claimed, citing estimates that roughly 2,000 cetaceans die every year in Galician waters.
The Spanish government is drafting a royal decree to address cetacean bycatch, but ClientEarth said the proposal currently under consideration does not rise to the level of E.U. obligations under the bloc's Common Fisheries Policy “and does not introduce sufficiently meaningful measures.”
“Protecting dolphins, porpoises, and other cetaceans is not only an environmental imperative; it is a legal obligation,” Meeus said at the time. “But, protection without monitoring is meaningless. Without robust monitoring, authorities cannot accurately assess the scale of bycatch nor can they design effective solutions. Spain must act now to ensure that fisheries operate in a way that safeguards protected marine species, as required by the best scientific recommendations.”
MAPA did not reply to the group’s formal letter, leading ClientEarth to look to the National High Court of Justice to address its concerns.
ClientEarth was one of 25 NGOs that issued a complaint to the European Commission in 2019 alleging that several member states – including Spain – were not adequately addressing cetacean bycatch. Following infringement proceedings, the commission concluded that Spain had not implemented sufficient monitoring measures, and a 2022 reasoned opinion again raised concerns with monitoring and enforcement.
