Dead Dolphins wash up on UK beaches
Pastor Dale Morgan
Dead Dolphins wash up on UK beaches*
By Charles Clover, Environment Editor
Last Updated: 7:08am BST 15/05/2007
The sight of dolphins leaping in the English Channel could become a
thing of the past, conservationists warned yesterday after research
showed an increase in the number of dolphins being washed up dead on
beaches in the south west.
Dolphins threatened in English Channel
Dolphins could disappear from part of Britain's coastline unless action
is taken to protect them from commercial fishing
Experts warned that unless urgent action was taken against the hundreds
of miles of gill nets and tangle nets around the approaches to the
English Channel, the dolphins and porpoises there would be wiped out.
A total of 128 dolphins and porpoises were found washed up dead on the
coast of the South West this year, including 60 common dolphin, 46
harbour porpoises and two bottlenosed dolphin, according to a report by
Marine Connection, a whale and dolphin charity, and the Wildlife Trusts.
This is despite a ban imposed in 2004 by the Government on pair trawling
for bass congregating in the Channel to spawn – in which two trawlers
tow up to two thirds of a mile between them – which was thought to be
killing dolphins. The ban only applied to British trawlers and within
the 12 mile limit.
French and Spanish fishermen still fish for bass in the Channel.
Increasingly conservation concern has focussed on gill and tangle nets,
up to 70 miles of which can be set by a single boat. Under EU law
“pingers” are supposed to have been fitted to set nets since last year
in the South West, but conservationists say this law is not being
enforced because the pingers can fly off and strike fishermen on the
head when the nets are hauled. Pingers are attached to nets and emit a
noise approximately every four seconds in an attempt to warn marine mammals.
The report by the two charities, the South West Dolphin Report, said
that the number of dead or stranded dolphins washing up on the shores of
the south west had risen steeply since the early 1990s.
There were just 58 dead dolphins and porpoises recorded in 1990 but this
rose to about 100 a year after 1997. From 2002 to 2004 alone, there were
871 strandings.
The number of bottlenose dolphin sightings peaked at 335 in 1992 – but
by 2004, this had fallen to about 60. After a further fall to just 39,
the numbers did rise to 195 last year, but so far this year there have
been just 16.
Dr Lissa Goodwin, fisheries and policy officer for Marine Connection,
said: “We could be having a severe impact on a sub-population of common
dolphin that we could be close to wiping out. There is also a very real
danger that we could be seeing the last of the bottlenose dolphins of
the South West coast.
"Entanglement in fishing gear is the number one cause of death in
stranded dolphins, particularly common dolphins and harbour porpoises.
If we want to reduce human impacts on dolphins we need to take urgent
action.”
Lindy Hingley of Brixham Seawatch said dolphins had fallen in the last
ten to 15 years. She said: “I predict if we do nothing now, in four
year's time we won't be getting any sightings.”
Conservationists want the Government to give powers to inshore fishery
management bodies to close fisheries that have a known by-catch of
dolphins, porpoises, turtles or seabirds until suitable mitigation
devices are identified.
Gary Streeter, Conservative MP for South West Devon, said: “We have
simply got to be more robust and urgent about changing the ways the seas
are fished to protect all marine lift.”
Paul Trebilcock of the Cornish Fish Producers Association said: “The
French are still fishing in to six miles for the bass. The many problem
we've seen with gill nets are harbour porpoises and then not that many.
The difficulty with the pingers, which we've been using for seven years
or so now, is coming up with something that will stay on the net, will
work and is affordable.”