Source: High North News, No.11, Nov. 1996, published by the High North Alliance

    Harbour Porpoise Bycatches

    An EU financed joint project between research institutions in Ireland, the UK, Sweden and Denmark (the “FAIR project”) aims at submitting a report in 1998 with recommendations on how cetacean bycatches in EU fisheries can be reduced. The project is the result of a 1994 report showing that a large number of harbour porpoises are taken as bycatches in gill net fisheries, and it will therefore focus largely on this species.

    The project will endeavour to acquire improved data on the problem of bycatches by, amongst other things, the deployment of observers within the various fisheries. The Sea Mammal Research Unit at St. Andrews University in Scotland has been appointed project coordinator.

    Independent of this project, a newly established Danish porpoise research centre, the so-called “Fjord & Bælt Centeret” in Kerteminde, will test the porpoises’ patters of reaction in relation to various types of tackle and “scarer devices”. This will be done with captive animals in an enclosure. The Centre is also working on the satellite transmitter marking of porpoises in order to gain a better overall view of areas where porpoises congregate and their patterns of migration.

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