Rare Dolphin killed by Nets

[Leon Roskilly]

See:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwal...all/4354150.stm

 

Tight Lines - leon

[Jaffa]

Shame about the dolphin death, but otoh I find the comments from the Marine "Conservation Officer" (appointed by who? and representing who?) more telling:

 

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Marine conservation officer, Joanna Doyle, said: "This one dolphin should be a message to everybody, including the decision makers, that something has to be done to stop these deaths and to reform the fisheries here in the UK and at the European level."

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So one dolphin is now to be an influence on fisheries policy? A dolphin of a species that is:

 

quote:

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Striped dolphins are acrobatic mammals usually found in tropical and subtropical regions in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

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Im sure it will end up some kind of influence on the "decision makers" , thanks to its media value but its still ******** IMHO!

 

No questions or rage about why such a dolphin might be swimming in our waters then? No reference at all to the huge survey of dolphin numbers being conducted this year and what its results might be? No actual useful journalism; just a lazy emotional piece of nonsense. Just my opinion like Ho hum...

 

Chris.

[Jaffa]

Just curious, but if the same dolphin had met its enddue to the prop from a pleasure craft, an anglers hook, or becoming entangled in a boats moorings; would the conservation officer demand the goverment act?

 

Maybe its a kayak only future!

[Spur-Hound]

Surely the more ban the netting fuel, the better???

[Jaffa]

Im not a netting fan Spurdog; was glad to see it effectively banned "by accident" due to the salmon laws up here (Scotland). OTOH this kind of tosh gets none of us anywhere IMHO.

[Brian Carragher]

I read the same report yesterday and came to the same conclusion as Jaffa.

A lone example of a species normally never found off our coast and some non appointed unknowledgeable condemms fishing practices when in reality we still don't know what caused this dolphins death.

If it was fishing that caused it's death then it would be fair to assume there would be more as dolphins swim in pods, catch one and you would be more likely to catch others in the same haul.

We'll call this one Tony shall we as its the tony one thats been washed up

[Guest jay_con]

Would be tony one washed up Brian. Dont they slit big holes in them so they sink to the bottom and stay there.

[Brian Carragher]

If that was the case then it would have been widley reported. Since yesterdays report there has been a post mortem performed on the dolphin and there is absolutly no mention of knife or slash wounds on the carcase.

What they have said is that there are injuries consistent with being trapped in a net, that to me sounds like it drowned but what it does'nt say is how old the carcass was. If it were fresh they would have said so and that would mean it was probably caught in UK waters, as they have'nt said it was fresh and they can determine quite accuratly how long its been dead, its fair to assume it could have travelled a fair distance after death, so I dont think anyone knows really where it was caught

[sam-cox]

anouther example of the fact that commercial fisherman have no consciences.

[tuggs]

Went digging around on another forum i post on and got a first hand report from someone that was called out to this....

quote:

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I actually went to this stranding and can tell you that the carcass was in very fresh condition and there were suspicions that it may have stranded live after being caught in nets. The PM report came back with bycatch, but I don't know whether this was due to pair trawlers or gill net fisheries though. Pair trawling is due to start again around now.

 

As the animal was quite a young male it is possible that it was still with it's family pod, in which case their carcasses may wash up soon; but historically striped dolphins have always washed up dead as single incidents and not part of a larger incident where carcasses wash up over a large area over several days (e.g.: common dolphins and harbour porpoises). To the best of my knowledge no further carcasses have been reported. If this animal was part of a pod then it is possible that the rest escaped from the nets, or were caught and just have not washed up (yet).

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