Voices against super trawlers rise again as more marine mammal carcasses appear

The stranding of another dead harbour porpoise with signs of net injury on UK shores refired the arguments against the supertrawlers in the Channel.

During the last seven years, more than 5000 dolphins have washed up dead on the UK coastline – a 15% increase to the previous period. Experts assume that a big part is due to heavier net fishing in the Channel. Not only are the big drag nets said to destroy the marine environment, they also unwantedly catch a large portion of endangered species – like dolphins or tuna – as so-called bycatch. The animals often suffocate in the nets and are then used as animal feed or discarded back into the sea. The marine mammals washed ashore might thus “just be the tip of the iceberg.”

The dead body of a harbour porpoise was washed ashore with signs of net injuries around its face.

The Brighton Dolphin Project further points out, that they “see a surge in dead dolphins on beaches when the supertrawlers are here, or during the weeks after.” The supertrawlers in the Channel belong to the biggest worldwide with more than 100 metres in length and drag nets a mile long.

So far, they are legally allowed in the Channel as long as they keep a distance of 12 miles off the coast. However, Oceans campaigners declare that “these vast, destructive vessels have no place operating in our most important and sensitive marine areas.” A Greenpeace petition has already been signed by almost 300.000 people. With the new event, campaigners hope that the “Government [will] use its new post-Brexit powers to ban supertrawlers from UK protected areas and also take a long, hard look at whether supertrawler operations are compatible at all with healthy oceans here.”

The full article can be found here: Supertrawlers in English Channel ‘driving dolphins to their death’ on beaches - Mirror Online