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In the meantime, the Government considers it important to take appropriate action here in the UK to reduce cetacean bycatch. Along with the devolved administrations, this department is currently preparing a UK small cetacean bycatch response strategy to identify what measures can be taken, and constraints on those measures, to reduce the incidental mortality of small cetaceans as a result of fishing activities. This will recommend ways in which the UK can work towards meeting the bycatch target set in 2000 by the parties to the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas (ASCOBANS) of which the UK is a party. This department will consult on the contents of the bycatch response strategy early this year.
The ASCOBANS agreement was set up under the auspices of the Bonn Convention and came into force in 1994. Under ASCOBANS, signatory countries are required to co-operate in research and management measures to conserve small cetaceans in the Baltic and North seas. The UK is keen to comply with its international obligations and particular attention is being given to the problem of cetaceans bycaught in fishing nets. At the ASOBANS meeting of the parties hosted by the UK in Bristol in 2000, the UK strongly supported a resolution reducing unacceptable interactions of cetaceans with fisheries in the ASCOBANS agreement area. I am pleased to say that the resolution was accepted by the other parties, and clear limits for levels of incidental take of cetaceans were agreed.
We have been putting effort and funding into research to help us find answers to the problem of cetacean bycatch. In particular, this Department has funded the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) to undertake monitoring of various fisheries thought most likely to result in the capture of cetaceans. As a result of the extensive research which the SMRU have undertaken, we have already identified the potential benefits of acoustic devices such as pingers in reducing bycatch in fixed gear fisheries. In the light of this research, and as a first step to resolving this problem, we have already suggested that the Commission should make the use of pingers in all fixed gear such as in the Celtic Sea and North Sea gill net fisheries. SMRU's work for us also includes testing other possible mitigating measures. Last year SMRU developed and made encouraging progress on testing separator grids during their monitoring work on last year's bass fishery off South West England. This fishery took place in March/April 2002 and had previously demonstrated a significant problem of cetacean bycatch. The trial will be resumed once the commerical fishery restarts in order to refine the system and further assess the grid’s effectiveness in protecting dolphins and maintaining fish catch rates. If SMRU’s trials are not successful, we will look at other measures.
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