Bycatch has ‘shocking’ toll on British marine life, first-ever analysis reveals

A net is raised with hundreds of dogfish, an unintended bycatch. Photograph: Marco Kesseler/Alamy View image in fullscreen A net is raised with hundreds of dogfish, an unintended bycatch. Photograph: Marco Kesseler/Alamy Bycatch has ‘shocking’ toll on British marine life, first-ever analysis reveals Conservationists say cherished creatures such as whales, dolphins and seabirds are being killed in large numbers by fishing tackle Thousands of Britain’s most charismatic and protected marine wildlife, including whales, porpoises, dolphins, seals and seabirds are being killed as “collateral damage” by fishing vessels every year, according to the first-ever analysis of bycatch data. The analysis, by the Wildlife and Countryside Link, a coalition of voluntary conservation groups, reveals the devastating toll bycatch, the accidental capture and killing of non-target species by fishing vessels, is having on marine species. The “shocking” scale of annual deaths in the report, Hidden in the haul: The true scale of bycatch is likely to be “the tip of the iceberg”, it said, as only a fraction of the UK fishing fleet monitor bycatch. Only 0.05% of dredging vessels monitor this. They, like the bottom trawlers exposed in the recent David Attenborough film Oceans , drag heavy gear across the sea floor and are known for doing damage to marine life on the sea bed. Non-UK vessels operating in UK waters were not included in the data. View image in fullscreen A starfish is returned to the sea off the coast of Kyleakin, Scotland. Any small amounts of bycatch are tossed back into the loch when caught by creel fisheries and the vast majority of it survives the process. Photograph: Emily Whitney/AP The deaths estimated in the report, which were extrapolated from datasets on bycatch and discard numbers, were more than 1,000 harbour porpoises and common dolphins killed annually, 10,000 seabirds and 500 seals. Six humpback whales and 30 minke whales were also found dead in Scottish creel ropes. Over 1,000 endangered Atlantic salmon and 120 tonnes of protected sharks, skates and rays are also caught and killed as bycatch by commercial fishing vessel every year. Octopus surge spreads up UK coast as far as Scotland, study finds Read more Richard Benwell, the chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link, said most of the deaths were avoidable by using a range of mitigation measures. He called on the government in England to deliver promised action on bycatch of protected species. “From razorbills and dolphins to endangered salmon and sharks, the scale of destruction exposed in this report is shocking, with animals dying in awful and unnecessary ways.” In English waters, the use of gillnets, a type of static net that hangs like a curtain in the water, are the highest risk for seabird bycatch. Birds including puffins, gannets and razorbills get caught and drown when they dive for food. Gillnets cause 400,000 seabird deaths globally , according to research by BirdLife Internati