France is divided into eighteen administrative regions, of which thirteen are located in metropolitan France, while the other five are overseas regions.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS) is a non-profit, marine conservation activism organization based in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island, Washington, in the United States. Sea Shepherd employs direct action tactics to achieve its goals, most famously by deploying its fleet of ships to track, report on and actively impede the work of fishing vessels believed to be engaged in illegal and unregulated activities causing the unsustainable exploitation of marine life.
Paul Franklin Watson is a Canadian-American conservation and environmental activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and direct action group focused on marine conservation activism. The tactics used by Sea Shepherd have attracted opposition, with the group accused of eco-terrorism by both the Japanese government and Greenpeace. Watson is a citizen of Canada and the United States.
The administrative divisions of France are concerned with the institutional and territorial organization of French territory. These territories are located in many parts of the world. There are many administrative divisions, which may have political, electoral (districts), or administrative objectives. All the inhabited territories are represented in the National Assembly, Senate and Economic and Social Council and their citizens have French citizenship and elect the President of France.
A maritime prefect is a servant of the French State who exercises authority over the sea in a particular region under French jurisdiction, known as a maritime arrondissement. His administration is known as a maritime prefecture.
Neptune's Navy is the name that the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society uses to refer to the ships it operates. Most of these vessels are used to disrupt or hinder fishing, whaling or sealing operations that the group considers illegal.
Martine Louise Marie Aubry is a French politician. She was the First Secretary of the French Socialist Party from November 2008 to April 2012, and has been the Mayor of Lille (Nord) since March 2001; she is also the first female to hold this position. Her father, Jacques Delors, served as Minister of Finance under President François Mitterrand and was also President of the European Commission.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) rights in France have been among some of the most progressive in the world. Although same-sex sexual activity was a capital crime that often resulted in the death penalty during the Ancien Régime, all sodomy laws were repealed in 1791 during the French Revolution. However, a lesser-known indecent exposure law that often targeted LGBT people was introduced in 1960 before being repealed twenty years later.
Annick Girardin is a French politician of the Radical Party who served as Minister of the Sea in the government of Prime Minister Jean Castex (2020–2022), Minister of Overseas France in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe (2017–2020) and Junior Minister for Development and Francophonie in the government of Prime Minister Manuel Valls (2014–2018). In the National Assembly of France, she represented the islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon from 2007 to 2014.
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society engages in various demonstrations, campaigns, and tactical operations at sea and elsewhere, including conventional protests and direct actions to protect marine wildlife. Sea Shepherd operations have included interdiction against commercial fishing, shark poaching and finning, seal hunting and whaling. Many of their activities have been called piracy or terrorism by their targets and by the ICRW. Sea Shepherd says that they have taken more than 4,000 volunteers on operations over a period of 30 years.
Patrick Grainville is a French novelist.
Sabine Quindou is a French journalist, known for having co-hosted the popular science education TV show C'est pas sorcier with Jamy Gourmaud and Frédéric Courant, produced by France 3.
FishAct is an international marine conservation and activism organisation based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its name was changed in 2018 to FishAct. FishAct's stated mission is to "end the industrial overfishing of the oceans" and to "empower individuals to get actively involved in building grassroots citizen-led conservation communities". The non-governmental organisation was founded in 2010 and has active local chapters in Germany and the United Kingdom. To achieve its goals, the organisation uses a combination of investigation, education, and non-violent direct-action. Campaigns have included gathering support for the release of captive cetaceans, actions against dolphin drive hunts and campaigning to end overfishing of the endangered bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean Sea.
The Fondation Brigitte Bardot, also known as The Brigitte Bardot Foundation, is a French foundation dedicated to animal protection created by French actress Brigitte Bardot in 1986. Since 1992, the foundation has been recognized as a "public utility".
A by-election was held in Mayotte's 1st constituency on 18 March 2018, with a second round on 25 March as no candidate secured a majority of votes in the first round. The by-election was called after the Constitutional Council invalidated the election of Ramlati Ali, candidate of the Socialist Party (PS) in the June 2017 legislative elections and member of the La République En Marche group in the National Assembly, on 19 January 2018.
Olivier Dubuquoy is a French geographer, documentarist and environmental activist known for his denunciation of the pollution of the Mediterranean by red sludge and his advocacy for an end to our dependency on fossil fuels deemed responsible for global warming. He is the founder of the citizens' movement Nation Océan and the society for the preservation of the marine environment ZEA.
Bochra Belhaj Hmida, was born in Zaghouan. She is a Tunisian lawyer and politician.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the French overseas department and region of Mayotte on 10 March 2020. On 31 March, the first person died of COVID-19. In late April, the virus was out of control, and actively circulating on the island. On 16 August, Mayotte has been green listed.
Louis Paul André Chack,, was a French Navy officer, author and Nazi collaborator. He served in the Navy during the First World War, and spent the interwar period writing books on naval history, and agitating at the Far-Right. During the Second World War, he eagerly collaborated with the Nazi, presiding a so-called "Comité d'action antibolchévique". At the Liberation, he was arrested, tried to treason, and executed by firing squad.
The Glorioso Islands Marine Natural Park is a marine park at the entrance of the Mozambique Channel, around the Glorioso Islands, in the Indian Ocean. It extends for more than 43,000 km2 until the edge of the French overseas territory's exclusive economic zone. Established in 2012, it is the fourth marine natural park created by France and the second in the Indian Ocean after Mayotte Marine Natural Park, which it abuts.
