Marine and Wildlife Welfare

Wild Harbour Porpoise Bycatch Welfare

Harbour porpoises are the UK's most common cetacean and face significant mortality from bycatch in gillnet fisheries.

Key Facts

Gillnet bycatch is the leading cause of harbour porpoise mortality in the North Sea and English Channel
Porpoises drown within minutes of entanglement due to their breath-holding limitations
Acoustic pingers on gillnets reduce porpoise bycatch by 70-90% in trials
Observer coverage to document bycatch is inadequate across most UK fisheries
ASCOBANS conservation plans include bycatch reduction as a priority action

Welfare Considerations

Gillnet entanglement causes drowning deaths that involve acute suffering over minutes. At the scale of thousands of porpoises annually, this represents an enormous aggregate welfare burden. Pinger adoption and gillnet fishing reform in key porpoise habitats are the priority interventions.

What You Can Do

Support campaigns for mandatory pinger use on gillnets in UK porpoise habitats
Advocate for expanded fisheries observer programmes to monitor and document cetacean bycatch
Choose seafood from fisheries with demonstrated bycatch reduction measures