Harbor Porpoise Bycatch Welfare | Animal Welfare Hub

Harbor porpoises are among the most commonly bycaught cetaceans in North Atlantic and North Sea fisheries, with significant welfare consequences.

Key Facts

Harbor porpoises are the smallest cetacean in the North Atlantic, vulnerable to entanglement in gill nets and bottom trawls
Denmark, Germany, and the Netherlands have populations with concerning population trends linked to high bycatch rates
Drowned porpoises die from asphyxiation after entanglement — a welfare harm estimated to take several minutes in air-breathing mammals
Pingers (acoustic deterrent devices) reduce porpoise bycatch by 70-90% in controlled studies when used correctly
Baltic Sea porpoise populations are critically endangered with population estimates below 500 individuals
EU PELGAS surveys and SCANS studies monitor porpoise populations but bycatch monitoring remains inadequate

Welfare Considerations

Harbor porpoise bycatch causes individual animal welfare harm through drowning entanglement — a distressing death for highly intelligent, social mammals with complex cognitive lives. The welfare dimension of bycatch is often discussed in conservation terms (population impact) rather than individual animal welfare terms, but the suffering of individual porpoises entangled in gill nets is significant regardless of population status. Pingers represent a proven, cost-effective mitigation technology whose welfare benefits are clear: reducing entanglement rates directly reduces the number of individual porpoises dying from drowning. The policy challenge is achieving pinger deployment compliance across the diverse small-scale fisheries that operate in porpoise habitat. Mandatory pinger use with enforcement and subsidised equipment provision represents the highest-leverage welfare intervention available.

What You Can Do

Support mandatory pinger deployment requirements with equipment subsidies for fishers operating in porpoise habitat
Choose seafood certified under schemes that require bycatch mitigation measures for gill net and bottom trawl fisheries
Donate to cetacean conservation organisations monitoring porpoise populations and advocating for bycatch reduction
Advocate for strengthened EU bycatch monitoring and reporting requirements that enable evidence-based management
Reduce consumption of fish from uncertified gill net and trawl fisheries operating in high-porpoise habitat areas