Ikizukuri
Out of context: Reply #23
- Started
- Last post
- 24 Responses
- ********0
France’s League for the Protection of Birds claims ortolan numbers have plunged 30 per cent in the past 10 years, with as many as 1,500 poachers catching an estimated 30,000 live birds a year in the south-western Aquitaine region.
The maximum fine is €6,000 (£4,075), but two of the three poachers caught last year escaped with verbal warnings.
Last week Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, the environment minister, declared that enough was enough.
In future, she said, laws passed in 1999 to protect the endangered species would be fully enforced.
Jean-Marc Michel, the head of the ministry’s nature and countryside department, said: "We have brought in reinforcements to increase surveillance on poachers and their traps, and to search suspects’ homes if necessary to catch them in flagrante delicto."
The move brought predictable dismay. “I find it sad that we can no longer serve ortolan in France, or woodcock for that matter, while it is still possible to eat the latter in restaurants in Britain, Spain and Belgium,” said one leading chef, Michel Rostang.
Restaurateurs caught serving ortolans also face the €6,000 fine and risk jail if they reoffend.
"It is part of our culture which is disappearing," one complained. "The ortolan isn’t in danger. That’s just a strategy by the ecologists to prevent hunting."
Officially, ortolan is off the menu at all French restaurants.