11th October 2007

A young bottlenose dolphin with its tail amputated by a sharp knife was recovered from St Ives harbour this week by volunteers from Cornwall Wildlife Trust's Marine Strandings Network.

Dr Nick Tregenza, a local cetacean expert who examined the dolphin with the Network's team said, "This dolphin is one of the small groups of bottlenose dolphins that have been seen by so many people moving around the coast of Cornwall and swimming with surfers. There are only about a dozen in the group. This amputation of the tail fin is almost certainly something done by a fisherman to get the dolphin out of his gear after it drowned; it had a net mark on one of its flippers. I don’t think this was a deliberate attempt to harm the dolphin and we would like the fisherman involved in this to explain the circumstances."

Ruth Williams, Marine Conservation Officer for the Trust said, "This is a devastating blow to everyone who has enjoyed seeing these beautiful creatures. We know that bottlenose dolphins are in danger of disappearing from Cornish waters as gradually, one by one, their numbers are dwindling."

Nick Tregenza continued, "Bottlenose dolphins colonised the Cornish coast after the last ice age but died out in the second half of the last century because of organo-chlorine pollution, which is now much reduced. They re-colonised our coastal waters in 1991 and we hoped they would thrive, but although they appear to be having a good number of young each year, their overall numbers are not increasing and they are clearly not flourishing.

If you follow the coast from France to Morocco, including right around the Mediterranean, incidental capture of these dolphins in gill nets is know from almost every country along that immense coastline, and the numbers of inshore bottlenose dolphins is in decline in many of them. Although there may be other causes, we have little doubt that control of inshore gill-netting is needed here or their numbers may dwindle to a level where the group will inevitably die out. That would be a great loss to the people of Cornwall and to its tourist industry.

One option towards a solution could be a ban on gill nets within a mile of the coast. Another could be the use of 'pingers', acoustic deterrent devices which are being trialled at present and may help to warn dolphins away from fishing nets. We believe such actions would reduce the risk to the bottlenose dolphins significantly. We hope we can work with the fishing industry and fisheries managers to take these proposals forward urgently."

British Divers Marine Life Rescue, which has also been concerned about the risks these dolphins face from collisions with boats, has been monitoring these local bottlenose dolphins and Dave Jarvis of BDMLR reports that, "There have been lots of sightings of the bottlenose dolphins recently as small groups move around the coast. Some dolphins have become so well know that they can be recognised by their scars and markings and several have even been given nicknames."

Jan Loveridge of Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Marine Strandings Network said, "The Marine Strandings Network members are all too used to seeing dolphins and porpoises that have died in fishing gear, but one of this tiny group of bottlenose dolphins is a blow to all of us. The lack of any useful action on this by the fishery authorities makes us feel we are just documenting the demise of the most precious part of our marine wildlife."

Dead dolphins of any species can be reported to the Trust's Marine Strandings Network Hotline on 0845 201 2626, which will send out a team to record the animal.