| Oceanspace News
Bonn, Germany
-- Limits on the numbers of dolphins and porpoises accidentally
killed in fishing nets are urgently needed if healthy populations
are to be restored to the North Sea.
Members of
an international conservation treaty backed by the UN Environment
Program (UNEP) are making the recommendation. ASCOBANS, the agreement
on small cetaceans of the Baltic and North seas, will be pressing
the European Commission to restrict the level of marine mammals
dying after entanglement in nets to less than 1.7% of their populations
as a first step towards improving their conservation. It is hoped
that these by-catch limits will form part of a review of the Common
Fisheries Policy (CFP) that has been launched by the EC and which
is due to be completed in December 2002.
Klaus Toepfer,
the executive director of UNEP, says, "studies indicate that
in some parts of the North Sea and adjacent waters, such as the
Celtic Sea, 6% of small cetaceans are being killed after becoming
entangled in fishing nets. This may amount to more than 2,000
harbor porpoises annually in the Celtic Sea. Scientists advise
that this level of by-catch is unsustainable and threatens to
undermine conservation efforts."
Toepfer adds
"placing a clear limit on the levels of dolphins and porpoises
being lost in fishing gear could play an important role in guaranteeing
a recovery of these charismatic and intelligent marine mammals
in European waters."
Mark Tasker,
the newly elected chair of ASCOBANS, says technologies such as
pingers are available that might help fishermen reduce the level
of by-catch. Tests in British and Danish waters indicate that
the by-catch of small cetaceans can be cut by more than 90% when
pingers are deployed. Other technologies, which might help establish
how and why marine mammals get caught and which may be commercially
available soon, include special underwater video cameras.
The 8th Advisory
Committee Meeting of ASCOBANS was held in Nymindegab, Denmark,
last April 2-5, 2001. The European Commission published a draft
Green Paper on Common Fisheries Policy reform in March 2001. Comments
to the commission should be made by September 30, 2001. Finalization
of the reforms is scheduled for December 2002 with the new policy
in place in January 2003.
For more information,
contact Robert Hepworth, deputy director, UNEP Division of Environmental
Conventions, e-mail robert.hepworth@unep.org;
or Mark Tasker, ASCOBANS chair, e-mail mark.tasker@
jncc.gov.uk.
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