A British member of the European Parliament has called for decisive action to reduce deaths of dolphins and porpoises from fishing nets.

Photo: Clive Martin /BDRP

Neil Parish, Conservative MEP for England's South-west region, has backed a call by the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) for the British Government to speed up the introduction of measures to reduce entanglements.

"The UK Government has a duty to provide adequate protection to these animals and it is clearly failing in that duty," Parish is reported to have said. "The Government knows some of our fishing equipment is killing dolphins and porpoises, yet they procrastinate with trials of technology that may not be effective.

"[Fisheries Minister] Ben Bradshaw should stop dragging his feet. The Government must stop the trials and take immediate action to bring this outrage to an end."

Under EU legislation, from 1 January this year member states should have introduced electronic 'pingers' which, attached to fishing nets, can repel dolphins and porpoises and save them from accidental capture. But Britain - along with other EU states - has failed to meet the requirement.

British trials of pinger technology started in 1998, conducted by specialist researchers with EC funding. According to the WDCS, it has been accepted that the principle works - but it has not been proved that the technology can be applied reliably under commercial conditions.

Recently, trials organiser Sea Fish Industry Authority reported that, of four prototypes tested, two failed and the other two, while more promising, had battery or reliability problems. Sea Fish has been given until the end of March to conduct further tests with, it hopes, better results.

The European Commission is due to meet on 20 April with Sea Fish and other bodies responsible for similar research in other countries. The aim will be to examine the difficulties they have encountered with the pingers and how to solve them.

But Ali Ross, WDCS Fisheries Policy Officer, doubts that any significant progresswill be made by the end of March. She told Divernet that, until they can be introduced and used effectively, "fisheries that are causing the damage should be closed or limited".

Related links
WDCS website

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