| Wildlife Trust launches dolphin campaign | |
|  | | Dolphins - at risk from fishing nets |
| | The Devon Wildlife Trust is raising money to fund a two-year campaign to put pressure on Europe to ban pair trawling - blamed for killing dolphins around our shores. |
| | | Thousands of dolphins and porpoises are being killed in the seas around Devon and Cornwall each year, with pair trawling being blamed for the slaughter.
This year, the UK responded by unilaterally introducing a ban on the form of fishing, where two trawlers work together. Their nets scoop up fish in their thousands, but larger creatures such as dolphins also get caught.
Europe has refused to introduce a ban on pair trawling, saying there's not enough evidence it is to blame for the dolphin deaths.
Now, the Devon Wildlife Trust is to spend two years collecting data to present as evidence to Euro bosses.
Staff and volunteers will be gathering information on strandings from around the Devon coast.
The trust wants to keep watch on beaches where carcasses might come ashore.
They will also be tracking the movement of dolphins - and training boat owners to track the dolphins off shore.
As part of that, the trust is buying equipment which can track and count the creatures, to get a better idea of where the animals are most at risk.
 | | Trust director Paul Gompertz |
But the two year project will cost around £40,000, and the trust has started a fund raising campaign.
Trust director Paul Gompertz said action must be taken to save the dolphins: "Something must be done.
"Last year we recorded nearly 350 dead dolphins and porpoises in Devon and Cornwall, and scientists estimate that only 5% - 10% of those killed ever get washed up.
"That's anywhere between 3,500 and 7,000 being killed every year.
"One minute, an exuberant celebration of life, the next a limp carcass to be discarded when the net is pulled on board the fishing boat. It can't be right.
"We cannot justify treating them as a waste product of our appetite for fish.
"As a conservation organisation, we are concerned with the long term future of these animals which are at risk - certainly around our shores, if not world wide.
"The only thing we can do now is provide more and better data. So far, we have operated on a shoestring, collecting data as and when we could. This is no longer good enough."
For information on helping the trust, visit their website which is linked from the left of this page.
Article written: 12th November 2004.
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