Map of cetacean strandings in France

The Réseau National d’Échouages (RNE), the French stranding network coordinated by the Observatoire Pelagis (CNRS / Université de La Rochelle), has recorded every stranding of cetaceans and seals on the mainland and overseas French coastline since 1972. This interactive map presents a selection of representative strandings by year, species and presumed cause, as a way into the main pressures bearing on cetaceans in France.

Understanding strandings

The Réseau National d’Échouages (RNE), coordinated by the Observatoire Pelagis (CNRS / Université de La Rochelle), has recorded all strandings of cetaceans and seals on the mainland French coastline since 1972. This interactive map presents a selection of representative strandings by year, species and presumed cause, as a way into the pressures bearing on cetaceans.

Further reading on strandings

See also what to do if you find a stranded cetacean, how the RNE works, or the pages devoted to bycatch and climate change.

The Réseau National Échouages: 50 years of sentinel data

The Réseau National Échouages (RNE) has been coordinated by the Observatoire Pelagis (UMS 3462 CNRS / La Rochelle Université) since its foundation in 1972. Close to 500 volunteer correspondents, OFB officers, vets and trained naturalists, attend strandings throughout mainland France and the overseas territories, within a tight time limit so as to preserve the biological samples (organs, stomach contents, parasites, pollutants).

Strandings are sentinel indicators: a sudden rise in winter in the Bay of Biscay betrays peaks of bycatch in gillnetters and pelagic trawlers. Toxicological analyses reveal PCB and mercury burdens; stomach contents document plastic ingestion. All these results feed into the annual Pelagis reports and the Atlas des mammifères marins de France (MNHN).