My good friends at the Irish Whale & Dolphin Group are again reporting very unusual activity of dead whales and dolphins washing up on Ireland’s shore. Since 2012, there has been a huge increase in numbers of dead common dolphins, and even hugely rare beaked whales stranding on the west and north coasts of Ireland and also Scotland.
There can be several causes for these, but no one is any doubt that many of them are caused by fisheries, the ropes tied around animals’ tails are the giveaway as are the net marks along their bodies and sometimes the dorsal fins are sawn off, apparently so fishermen can squeeze the dolphins back out through the port holes.
A quick look on www.MarineTraffic.com will show you which of these ‘Super trawlers’ are operating in Irish waters … again and again we see certain vessels from the Dutch-German fleet.
When will the authorities start to do something about this..
This is a piece I did with Dr. Simon Berrow in IRELAND’S OCEAN for RTÉ a while back.
See also http://iwdg.ie/news/?id=2641