Keen volunteers from all over Cornwall gathered in Truro at the weekend for their third Marine Strandings Forum, organised by the Cornwall Wildlife Trust Marine Strandings Network.

Although the event was a social occasion, it also had a serious purpose. "Our volunteers are at the forefront of scientific research into the deaths of marine animals and it's thanks to their efforts on the front line that we can start to piece together information about what kills dolphins, seals, basking sharks and turtles in Cornish waters" says Ruth Williams, Marine Conservation Officer for the Trust.

The network of volunteers records and photographs all stranded marine animals in Cornwall and the information they have collected over many years is passed on to Government departments responsible for the marine environment.

The Forum presentations concentrated on the results of 14 years worth of research conducted by the Institute of Zoology and Natural History Museum and the major part that the Marine Strandings Network volunteers in Cornwall played in this. Dr Paul Jepson and his colleague, Rob Deaville, thanked the volunteers and the Trust for their hard work and described the Network as a role model for other organisations.

A lecture by local cetacean expert, Nick Tregenza, introduced the audience to a new research project to identify death caused by entanglement in fishing gear from external injuries.

The day concluded with a presentation by Nynke Osinga from the Seal Rehabilitation and Rescue Centre in the Netherlands on the similar work they do to rescue and record marine animals stranding around the Dutch coastline.

"It was really sobering to see just how many dolphins, whales and porpoises die in the UK, most of them in Cornwall”, said one of the volunteers. "But it is so rewarding to be a part of this team and gather information that will help to get better protection for our marine animals. When you see so many dolphins washed up on Cornish beaches every year, it's a wonder that there isn't outrage. If these bodies were all over the land, the government would put a stop to it. It makes me sad and angry, but even more determined to do what I can and I'm grateful to be so involved."

This year has been a particularly important one for monitoring strandings figures as Jan Loveridge, one of the Strandings Coordinators for the Network, explains, "At the beginning of the year, a Government announcement suggested that the drop in the numbers of dolphins killed in 2005, a total of 103 in Cornwall, was due to the ban on bass pair trawlers they had introduced and that this represented a success story for dolphin conservation. But within the first three months of 2006, we had already recorded 112 dead cetaceans from Cornish beaches, more than for the whole of the previous year, which proves their theory totally wrong. That figure has now reached over 160, 50% more than the total for 2005, and we are not yet into the main winter fishing season that claims the lives of the majority of the dolphins and porpoises we see."

Jan continues, "To add to our concerns, Defra (the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs) has recently announced that it is cutting funding to our partners, the Institute of Zoology and Natural History Museum, who run the UK Cetacean Strandings Project to which we contribute our data. This means that the number of post-mortem examinations carried out on some of the dolphins our volunteers retrieve will be cut from 800 to 100 for the whole of the UK, which is a devastating blow. We are seriously concerned that important information about the wellbeing of cetaceans and the marine environment will be missed with such limited numbers of animals being sent for post mortem."

If you find a dead marine animal, please report it as soon as possible to the Marine Strandings Network on 0845 201 2626.