A new report from Wildlife and Countryside Link has exposed the shocking scale of accidental wildlife deaths in UK fisheries - with more than 1,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises estimated to be caught every year in UK waters.
The report, Hidden in the haul: The true scale of bycatch, warns that bycatch remains one of the most serious and avoidable threats facing marine wildlife. Alongside cetaceans, the analysis estimates that fishing vessels operating in UK waters catch more than 10,000 seabirds, around 500 seals, over 120 tonnes of protected sharks, skates and rays, and more than 1,000 endangered Atlantic salmon (just in the northeast mackerel fishery) every year.
Bycatch is the accidental capture or entanglement of non-target animals in fishing gear. For whales, dolphins and porpoises, it can mean drowning in nets or suffering serious injuries from entanglement. The report also warns that the true scale of the problem is likely to be even greater, because monitoring and reporting across much of the UK fishing fleet remains inadequate.
ORCA says the report underlines a long-standing failure to turn evidence into action. Bycatch has been recognised for decades as a major threat to cetaceans in UK waters, yet progress has been painfully slow. The report notes that the UK Government was advised to publish a bycatch action plan by the end of 2023, and committed to develop an England plan by 2024 - but no action plan has yet appeared.
The report calls for legally binding Bycatch Action Plans and mandatory remote electronic monitoring on fishing vessels. ORCA supports urgent action to ensure preventable deaths are stopped - not simply recorded as statistics.
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