France’s fisheries minister has called for an investigation after a spillage of more than 100,000 dead fish off the country’s Atlantic coast. Video footage filmed by environmental activists shows a mass of corpses floating on the sea surface.

An industry statement said the Margiris, the world’s second-largest super trawler, had reported a “fishing incident” after its net broke. The fish were blue whiting, a rare species subject to quotas.

The statement added that the lost fish would be deducted from the vessel’s quota. 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). Its head Lamya Essemlali told Reuters it wanted to “raise awareness among the French public” about the trawler, which it said had been banned from Australian waters and frequented the Bay of Biscay. “In line with EU law, this has been recorded in the vessel’s logbook and reported to the authorities of the vessel’s flag state, Lithuania.”

Story source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/huge-bank-of-dead-fish-spotted-off-french-coast/ar-AATtXQt?ocid=entnewsntp