Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
  • Whale watching
Vaquita. Photo Thomas Jefferson

Scientific Committee gives first ever official species extinction warning

Photo: Thomas Jefferson We have welcomed the urgent call by experts to protect the vaquita...
blue whale

Whale fossil from Peru may have been heavier than blue whale

Scientists examining the bones of a 39 million-year-old ancient whale have concluded that it may...
Humpback whale © Christopher Swann

Humpback whales breach in synchronisation

Humpback whales are renowned for their incredible acrobatic displays, but a family in the USA...
Long-finned pilot whale

Unusual activity witnessed before pilot whale stranding

Just days after a pod of long-finned pilot whales stranded on an island in the...

80,000 dolphins dying each year in Indian Ocean nets

Dead dolphin in net

A new report has revealed the shocking figures behind dolphin deaths in fishing nets in the Indian Ocean, suggesting that populations may have dropped by over 80% in recent decades.

The study, led by Dr Charles Anderson of the Manta Marine organisation and published in the journal Endangered Species Research, paints a catastrophic picture, revealing that up to 80,000 whales and dolphins (mainly dolphins) could be trapped and dying in gill nets in the region each year.

Fishermen use gill nets to catch tuna for the commercial market. These nets hang like a curtain wall in the water catching fish but also other, non- target species including dolphins and whales.

Like us, whales and dolphins breathe air, so when they get tangled up in a net, rope or fishing line it is a race against time to reach the surface. In their desperation to escape and avoid suffocation, some tear muscles, break teeth, and sheer off fins. The more they struggle, the more entangled they can become.

Leave a Comment