I will be introducing the new nets, and if that doesn't work then I am prepared to look at legislative action

Elliot Morley, Fisheries Minister

Various sea mammals - mostly common dolphins - have been washed ashore between Cornwall and West Sussex.

Between 1 January and 5 February, 109 were found.

About 350 have turned up on French shores in the past two weeks.

Numbers have been rising because more boats - mostly foreign - are taking up the pair-trawling methods in the winter fishery off Plymouth and Cornwall.

It is thought many bodies are never washed ashore.

January's storms may have brought in a higher percentage than normal.

More than 100 bodies were found in January

Researchers at Scotland's Sea Mammal Research Unit have already applied for funding to test nets fitted with a device called the Nordmore Grid - a set of bars that forces unwanted creatures out of nets.

Fish are small enough to pass through the bars into the net, but the larger creatures hit the grid and are deflected upwards to an escape hole.

The Southern Eye programme was broadcast on Thursday evening.

In it, Elliot Morley said: "I will be introducing the new nets, and if that doesn't work then I am prepared to look at legislative action to make sure pelagic fishing stops killing dolphins."

Where the bodies were found

Cornwall 46 Devon 28 Dorset 21 Hampshire 7 West Sussex 7

The Nordmore Grid was developed in Norway and is already used in the US to stop fish getting caught in shrimp nets.

It has since been adapted by researchers in New Zealand to prevent sea lions drowning in trawls.

Simon Northridge, of the sea mammal unit, told BBC News Online: "I understand they had a 95% success rate.

"This will be the first time anyone has tried it with dolphins."

Sea mammals are widespread off the UK

Joe Plomin, researcher on the Southern Eye programme, said: "Elliot Morley has been under pressure from campaigners to do something.

"Instead of saying the fishing has to be banned altogether, here's a solution.

"It's a question of testing whether the dolphin can swim into the grid while chasing fish at full pelt, and then be forced up out of the net without being damaged.

"The Sea Mammal Research Unit has got a proposal in, and now that is almost certainly going to go through."

Post-mortem examinations at the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth showed some of the dolphins found this year were diseased.