Campaign background

Under the Habitats Directive, EU Member States are obliged to monitor the incidental capture of cetaceans and to take further research or conservation measures as required to ensure that it does not have a significant negative impact on the species concerned.

Parties to ASCOBANS (Agreement on Small Cetaceans in the Baltic and North Sea) have also adopted a resolution which states that member states should reduce bycatch levels to below the threshold of "unacceptable limits", with the ultimate objective to reduce bycatch to zero. Under the latest version of the resolution agreed at the Meeting of Parties in 2006, member states are additionally urged to collect information on the extent, type and distribution of static gillnet and tanglenet effort, in order to facilitate bycatch mitigation, management decisions.

Bottom-set Gill and Tanglenet Fisheries
The EC Regulation on cetacean bycatch, adopted in April 2004 could have made significant progress towards solving this critical conservation and animal welfare problem. However, the text finally agreed by Ministers was substantially weakened and omits critical provisions, leaving the Regulation short of that required to protect Europe's dolphins and porpoises.

The Regulation makes a form of acoustic deterrent, called a "pinger" mandatory on all bottom set gill and tangling nets, for vessels over 12m in length (applied to certain areas, at specific times). Pingers are now manufactured by four companies and are cylindrical or banana shaped devices, 20cm or less in length. Pingers are attached to the net at regular spacings of 100 to 200m and emit a 'ping' approximately every four seconds in an attempt to alert the porpoise or dolphin to the presence of the net.

At the time, despite not being a stronger text, this was heralded as a major breakthrough in bycatch mitigation - however we have exceeded the deadlines at which many of the requirements of the regulations came into force. Pingers became mandatory in the North Sea from June 2005, however no fishermen are employing either gill or tangle nets which means that none are required to place the devices on their fishing gear. In the South West, the regulation came into force as of 1st January 2006 and the South East become mandatory from the 1st January 2007. There are nonetheless, inherent problems, not only with pinger reliability and function but many are concerned over the effect initiated by the pinger in that it may actually drive away porpoises from important feeding habitat. The manufacturers of the device are additionally not equipped to supply the quantity of pingers needed to supply the entire fleet.

Fishing is continuing despite the lack of pingers on nets, where many cetaceans are continuing to die. Despite the EU Regulation being in force, the UK and many other European Governments appear to be far from a workable solution for these fisheries. The Marine Connection believes that until a workable, bycatch mitigation solution can be found, these fisheries should be closed to prevent further needless deaths.

Pelagic Pair Trawling for Sea Bass
In 2005, the Marine Connection was one of many organisations who campaigned for a total ban of pair trawling for sea bass in the English Channel. Whilst the government took, what was initially seen as a brave step calling a halt to pair trawling, the ban is only applicable to UK registered vessels, operating within 12 nautical miles offshore. This does not go far enough to protect our dolphins and unfortunately may put more individuals at risk of capture, as the majority of the population are found beyond 12 nautical miles. Our concern is that many dolphins are continuing to die unseen in these fishing nets, as they are caught too far offshore to ever land on the southwest's beaches. The Marine Connection will continue to press for change, hoping to achieve a total ban on bass pair trawling within the Channel and south-western approaches.