Whit Sunday: International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise

Hamburg: Every year, the third Sunday in May is dedicated to the “small whale in big trouble”. This year it falls on Whit Sunday but, unfortunately, the Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise is not a day for rejoicing.

The Baltic harbour porpoise is in major decline. Without strict protective measures, the only whale native to the Baltic Sea will soon become extinct. Marine pollution, underwater noise pollution and the fishing industry are collectively making life difficult for this small, only 1.6m-long cetacean. According to scientific estimates, only about 100 animals still exist in the eastern and central Baltic regions. In 1995, stocks were calculated at almost 600. In the western Baltic, there are probably 800 to 1,000. Every year, some four to seven percent of the stocks die in fishing nets as so-called “by-catch”. “At present, more harbour porpoises die than are born,” according to Petra Deimer, a marine biologist from the GSM. “If this continues, the Baltic harbour porpoise cannot survive.”

Within ASCOBANS (Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans in the Baltic and North Seas) a recovery plan has been developed to help the Baltic whale. The plan recommends changes in fishing gear: from drift nets to longlines and from bottom-set gill nets to fish traps. Unfortunately, the EU fisheries ministers were unable to agree on the adequacy of measures to be taken. Voting against the German proposal, the ban on bottom-set gill nets, (which can be up to 21kms long) is to be postponed until 2008; even then, Poland has no intention of adhering to it. The United Nations has been recommending a worldwide ban on drift nets since 1992.

In order to gather more information on the distribution and life patterns of harbour porpoises, the GSM is appealing for the third year running to yachtsmen and other seafarers. They are asking crews to report sightings of harbour porpoises, giving particulars such as the date, direction of the wind and the location, if possible with GPS (see www.gsm-ev.de). The data on sightings are also useful for the designation of special areas of conservation. Under the Habitats Directive for the conservation of natural habitats, wild life and fauna, member states of the European Union committed themselves in 1992 to creating a network of protected areas for endangered species and habitats.

In 2004, 633 sightings were reported to the GSM. (In 2002 it was approximately 100.) In co-operation with the German Federal Office for Sea-going Vessel Travel and Hydrography (BSH), the reported locations were integrated into a sea chart. With this information, it was possible to confirm plans for the siting of protected areas for harbour porpoises within German waters, such as off the island of Fehmarn, in the Kadetrinne and in the Flensburger Förde.

Because traffic in the central and eastern regions of the Baltic Sea is relatively infrequent, watersports’ enthusiasts are being asked by the GSM to be especially vigilant. It is worth noting that yachtsmen will still be to able to move freely within the proposed conservation sites for harbour porpoises. Whale protection does not affect accessibility to watersports’ enthusiasts. What the GSM finds hard to comprehend is, however, the continuation of commercial operations. Planned protected areas are fast becoming areas of utilisation for the extraction of crude oil, natural gas and gravel.

Society for the Conservation of Marine Mammals (GSM)

(Gesellschaft zum Schutz der Meeressaeugetiere e.V.)

Tel.: +49 (0)4106 4712 or mobile: +49 (0)171 784 83 20