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 Margins, the world's second-largest super trawler, had reported a "fishing incident" after its net broke.
It said the fish were blue whiting, a species of the cod family.
The lost fish would be deducted from the vessel's quota, the statement added.
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 Lama 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.
Sea Shepherd filmed the bank of dead fish, which it said covered 3,000 sq m
The Fisheries Minister tweeted (in French) that she was investigating, and that the images were shocking.
The EU Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries, Virginius Sinkevicius, also said he was seeking "exhaustive information and evidence about the case".
The Pelagic Freezer-Trawler Association issued a statement saying a net on the Margins had ruptured at 05:50 local time (04:50 GMT) on Thursday morning, adding that this was a "very rare occurrence".
"In line with EU law, this has been recorded in the vessel's log book and reported to the authorities of the vessel's flag state, Lithuania," it said.
Mar Manor: Tonnes of dead fish wash up on Spanish lagoon’s shores
24 August 2021
For days, beaches along the Mar Manor in south-eastern Spain have been littered with dead fish
Tonnes of dead fish have washed up on the shores of a large saltwater lagoon in south-east Spain in recent days after a mass die-off that has shocked local residents and environmentalists.
The local government has blamed recent hot weather for the deaths of the fish in the Mar Manor, south of Murcia.
But scientists say pollution from local farming has degraded the water quality.
Prosecutors are investigating, and residents have held protests to demand action.
Reports in the Spanish media say the central government is considering a request to declare the Mar Manor a disaster area.
The request was sent by the regional government, which has come under increasing pressure to save a lagoon that has been plagued by ecological problems for years.
Located on Spain’s south-eastern Mediterranean coast, the lagoon was once a magnet for tourism and a sanctuary for marine life.
But the condition of the water has worsened in recent years, leading to the degradation of ecosystems and mass die-offs of fish in 2016 and 2019.
Dead fish and crustaceans continue to appear on the beaches of Mar Manor in south-eastern Spain
WWF España, an environmental group, said the principal cause of the latest fish deaths was “pollution from intensive agriculture in the area”.
The group attributed the high mortality to a lack of oxygen in the water.
Ecologists say algae can bloom in waters that have been polluted with high levels of chemicals from human activity. This overgrowth of algae blocks sunlight and reduces oxygen in the water, making it difficult for aquatic life to survive.
“People call it the green soup,” Ramon Pagan of a local environmental pressure group told Reuters news agency. “It’s caused by an excess of fertilizers in the water.”
One resident, Ana Pined, said locals had been demonstrating about this for years.
“We’ve been unable to set foot in the water or be on the beach for years,” she said.
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