AR-News: (UK) Dolphins Threatened by Bass Fishing

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

By Nick Mead, Political Staff, PA News 


The current popularity of sea bass in supermarkets and restaurants is killing 
hundreds of dolphins, porpoises and whales each year, the Government was 
warned today.

Liberal Democrat Adrian Sanders (Torbay) said the “pair trawling” method – 
in which two boats tow huge nets – is currently unrestricted, with boats from 
across Europe coming to UK waters to fish for sea bass.

The problem has been exacerbated by aggressive marketing of the fish to 
British consumers which has increased demand, he told MPs.

He said hundreds of carcasses of dolphins, porpoises and small whales were 
being washed up on the shores of south west England and north west France.

Both dolphins and sea bass feed on mackerel and the dolphins are trapped in 
pair trawling nets intended to catch sea bass.

Mr Sanders said: “When they need to come up for air they can’t. They are 
trapped, suffocate and die just as a human would if caught in such a net without 
an oxygen tank.”

The dolphins often suffer terrible injuries in a desperate bid to escape.



full story:

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2722268 
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