In the first two months of 2021, the highest number of dead cetaceans since the beginning of recordings 30 years ago have been reported washed ashore on the Irish coast. Though numbers have been increasing over the years, the 93 dead animals from this year represent a huge spike from the 70 found in the two first months of 2020. And another 40 have already been reported for this March.
The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) assumes that natural causes are not the only ones to blame. Based on annual data, by-catch seems to be a considerable contributing factor. Every year, reports of stranded marine mammals have spiked significantly with a particularly high activity of mackerel and blue whiting fisheries from January to March. Many of the animals washed ashore showed entanglement injuries and trauma – broken upper jaws, tails and fins cut off, and ropes still attached to the carcasses.
The Irish South and West Fish Producers Organisation accepts the blame for a small percentage of dead animals but renounces that “the Irish fleet is not doing the damage here”. The majority of fishing vessels off the Irish shore are international companies. Especially the big trawlers, following the fish just like the dolphins do, are inevitable to catch cetaceans on accident.
Fishing industry representatives, in return, remark the COVID19 pandemic as a main influence for the spike in reports. More people spending their free time walking the beach sides might have led to a higher incidence of noticing dead animals, thereby increasing the reported numbers.
However, a higher reporting rate still does not deter the negative impact of by-catch on the marine population. Especially with a majority of international trawlers in the area, poor legislation on the matter might be a serious source for the by-catch issue at hand. IWDG calls for an inter-agency and inter-governmental solution to improve by-catch regulations and understand the causations. This way, especially vulnerable areas and destructive techniques could be teased out and regulated in the necessary manner.
The full report can be found here: Sharp rise in dead whales and dolphins washed up (rte.ie)
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