Mutilated Dolphins Wash Up on UK Beaches

4 years ago Nature

Conservationists are in a panic over the increasingly large numbers of mutilated sea mammals appearing on British shores.

dolph Image by Kiwi Sonja 28 dolphins and porpoises have been found dead on southwest England’s beaches since the new year, compared to 80 during all of 2007. Conservationists blame the increase in deaths on a delay in introduction of a sonar device that keeps the animals away from highly fished areas.

Evidence suggests the animals are being slaughtered after getting caught in commercial fishing nets. Several have had their stomachs cut open to aid them sinking, while others have had fins or tails removed to get them free of nets more quickly and even more show cuts from nets on their bodies.

Wildlife experts think that the deaths may be even more common than the washed-up bodies suggests. Mark Simmons of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said: "It is a horrid way for these dolphins to die and you can see that when they come ashore. Fishermen are getting more adept at hiding the evidence and what we see on land is only a proportion of the problem."

Although the animals are not endangered species, they are protected by the 1981 Wildlife and Countryside Act. The law, however, does not apply to “bycatch”, or animals caught accidentally in fishermen’s nets.

Recent EU legislation requires the use of sonic devices attached to boats that ward off the sea mammals while fishing occurs, but the English government has yet to enforce the use of the $120 devices.

Info from Telegraph

Environmental Graffiti is up for four bloggers' choice awards. You can vote for us for best entertainment blog, best blog of all time, best geek blog and best animal blogger.

If you want to find out all the latest news on the environment, why not subcribe to our RSS feed? We'll even throw in a free album.

Written by: Chris

Cool Links From Around the Web

Related Galleries on Environmental Graffiti

Comments

Old Comments

shinichi.okazaki says

Dec 18th, 2008 at 12am
Dang! I hate to see dead dolphins. Maybe those fishing vessels went to the dolphin's feeding ground to catch more fish but unfortunately caught more of the dolphins chasing their prey. There must be some law about animal feeding grounds, not bycatch. Its massacre! T_T.v..

Ralph Mondi says

Mar 29th, 2008 at 12am
It begs the question why the government are not legislating against these kind of atrocities. It is more than clear that human beings cannot live without political law system that prevents them from carrying out horrible acts such as these. Not that it would help change the behaviour of the criminals but it would at least show a concern and a willingness to take the issue seriously. But as the government are not showing any interest it must be supposed that they do not care. They are too busy with the ecomony - this new curse of our age. The obsession with money will be the cause of our downfall. Because big businesses are now playing with the chemical structure of out ecological system. People can say 'well, how do you know that?'. To which there is only one reply 'is it worth the risk?'.

brittany says

Mar 25th, 2008 at 12am
This is horrible and sad. It's very saddening to think that this sort of practice is still happening. If you care to discuss further, check out: http://www.planetflipper.com to find out more information. Here you can chat/share your thoughts with others who share the same interest of marine animals.

Mercedes De Windt says

Mar 25th, 2008 at 12am
It is unbelievable that we allow this to continue. 28 dolphins were found but how many were never found? How many did sink to the bottom of the ocean? The only solution is to stop eating fish before all the fish are gone. Becoming a vegetarian is a solution to most problems in this agressive world.