„Year of the dolphin in Europe – Conservation of small cetaceans and marine protected areas“
Conclusions on Baltic Harbour porpoise
In a final discussion round members of the conference „Year of the dolphin in Europe – Conservation of small cetaceans and marine protected areas“, 29 October - 1 November 2007, German Oceanographic Museum (DMM) made the following statement:
In reviewing Council Regulation 812/2004 for the Baltic Sea, the Commission should:
- Introduce mandatory use of pingers as an interim measure in all gillnet or entangling net fisheries of high risk to cetaceans (i.e. harbour porpoise), regardless of vessel size.
- The testing and introduction of alternative fishing gear should be speeded up, in order to make it possible to phase out gillnets as soon as possible.
- An effective small cetaceans by-catch monitoring programme should be encouraged and made mandatory, reinforcing already existing provisions. Recreational and other part-time fisheries should be addressed in a similar fashion.
- Include vessels below 15m in the mandatory observer program; where human observers are not possible, appropriate electronic surveillance should be conducted. In addition to independent monitoring, comprehensive reporting of by-catch by fishermen should be encouraged.
- Take account of the clear goals for by-catch mitigation laid down in the ASCOBANS Jastarnia Plan and ensure that a medium term time line (not exceeding three years) is adopted for the achievement of these goals.