Some 100,000 dead fish were thrown back into the sea off the French coast on Thursday by one of the world's largest fishing vessels. While the crew dismissed it as a "fishing accident", NGO Sea Shepherd denounced it as a "pillaging". It hopes that shocking images of the dead marine life will raise enough public awareness so that strong political decisions will be taken to combat overfishing.
From a distance, it looks like a long white streak of sea foam. At close range, the streak is comprised of the silvery bodies of some 100,000 dead fish, dumped back into the sea by Dutch-owned trawler FV Margiris, the world’s second-biggest fishing vessel. Macabre images of this carpet of dead fish went viral on social media when Sea Shepherd posted them on Thursday, as part of their Operation Ocean Killers in the Bay of Biscay on France's Atlantic coast.