French aquarium sued over deaths of 30 sharks

THE largest aquarium in Europe is facing legal action over the deaths of 30 hammerhead sharks, which a marine conservation group alleges suffered mistreatment.

Sea Shepherd France announced that it would file a lawsuit today against the Nausicaá aquarium in Boulogne, near Calais. The last of the 30 sharks, which were introduced to the aquarium in 2011 and 2018, died last Thursday. Sea Shepherd accuses Nausicaá of “serious mistreatment” of the sharks and “breaches of environmental law”.

Philippe Vallette, the manager of the aquarium, rejected the allegations and the claim that they died because they were kept in captivity. Instead, they died from “a fungus, latent in the organism of sharks, which spreads when they are in a weakened state”, he said.

Hammerheads were prone to fungal infection even in the wild, Mr Vallette said. “A female has 600 to 700 young during her life and the survival rate of a hammerhead shark is one for every two or three hundred,” he added.

However, experts say the sharks die earlier in captivity.

Hammerheads are an endangered species, notably because of the practice of shark-finning, in which their fins are removed, causing death because they are unable to swim properly and sink to the bottom. Fishing of the species is regulated by international treaty.

In a statement, the aquarium said: “The presence of the hammerheads at Nausicaá was intended to make our visitors acquainted with the beauty and fragility of this animal, to get to know it better and observe its behaviour in order to learn to protect it better in its natural environment.”