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Anger at rules to save dolphins
BBC {CBBC Newsround }
24th March 2004
New rules to stop thousands of European
dolphins and porpoises dying in fishing nets
have been criticised by campaigners for
not being good enough.
Nets used by boats over 12 metres only will have to have sonar "pingers" fitted by 2005, to warn dolphins.
The rules also mean dolphin-unfriendly driftnets used in the Baltic seas will be banned, but not until 2008.
The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) says the rules may be too little, too late to save the thousands that die each year.
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Driftnets are banned in the rest of the EU
The WWF is angry that the European Commission is
waiting until 2008 to completely ban driftnets in the
Baltic seas when they are banned in other areas.
It also says many of the dolphins are killed by smaller fishing boats, so it is silly not to make them fit pingers onto their nets too.
But European ministers say the new rules are a "welcome step" to help dolphins and porpoises.
About 10,000 harbour porpoises are killed in the North Sea and Celtic Sea every year.
The Baltic's porpoise population could be completely wiped out within the next 20 years unless something is done now.
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