CONSERVATION ISSUES - AGM REPORT: 13th January 2006

A scientific study shows that the Fishing Industry’s Fuel Efficiency gets worse as the Oceans stocks get thinner. The study shows that fisheries around the world burned about 13 billion gallons of fuel to catch 80 million tons of fish, that’s 375 gallons for every ton of fish, and it’s getting worse over all, because boats must venture farther and farther out to sea in search of dwindling stocks  Scientists say that fisheries account for about 1·2% of global oil consumption, and they use about 12½ times as much energy to catch fish than the fish provide to those who eat them. If global fishing efforts were reduced, they say, stocks would rebound and fewer boats would probably bring in just as many fish, and you could catch the same amount of fish for one third the energy use. The study concentrated on data from 20 major countries that account for 80% of the world’s fish catch, but they consider the fuel-use estimates were almost certainly low, because the data omitted freshwater fisheries, illegal or unregulated fisheries and the cost of transporting fish on land. These reports are rather alarming considering the importance of fish in the world’s diet.

However, it is not all doom and gloom, for although fishing over the years has been a destructive practice and nearly wiped out many species, including the whales of the world, species can rebound if protected, and some fantastic sightings of whales have been made off our coasts this past year. In August last year 6 Fin Whales were gorging on unusually large numbers of Herring and Mackerel off the Pembrokeshire coast, west Wales,  and they were accompanied in a feeding frenzy by 7 Minke Whales and about 50 Common Dolphins, as well as about 4000 Gannets and 5000 Manx Shearwaters. Fin Whales are the second in size to the Blue Whale as the largest animal on the planet, and two of the 6 Fin Whales were longer than the observers boat, which was over 40 ft long, the largest being 50 to 55 ft long. The observation was made by Dr. Peter Evans who set up the Sea Watch Foundation, and has spent most of his working life studying Cetaceans, and he said, “It was amazing, one might think because I have spent so many years doing this work, I would become so blasé, but it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. Some of the Common Dolphins were riding on the Fin Whales as if they were ships”  There were 16 other reports of Fin Whales off Britain in the last 2 years, and during 2005, 17 Minke whales were seen around Cornwall, and 60 or more Pilot Whales have been seen since March 2005, one of the best sightings was enjoyed and filmed by Francis and Tracey Upchurch in August when 2 pods of 10 or more came pass their boat a few miles off the Runnelstone, and I was pleased to receive a disk of their film.

Bottlenose Dolphins were seen off Cornwall every month last year, mostly in pods of up to 10, but 45 to 50 were seen in two pods of about 30 and 20, off The Rumps, on a few days in August. Common Dolphins were reported every month from February on, usually in pods of around 30 or less  but larger pods of 800 off St Agnes in June, and 1200 or more in Falmouth Bay in December were also reported. Risso’s   Dolphins were seen in 7 of the 12 months and there were 16 sightings during that time. The pods were usually small, but 12 were seen off Cape Cornwall in June and 15 off the Isles of Scilly in August. Harbour Porpoises were seen every month with 131 reported sightings, mostly of less than ten animals, but 55 were seen in 3 pods in Fal Bay on September 13th. There were 168 reported sightings of Basking Sharks during 2005, most were of solitary animals or very small groups but 100 were reported to be well spread out off the Rumps for a period during August. Ocean Sunfish were sighted 118 times, again mostly of a single animals, but 8 were seen together off Rame Head in July. Turtles were reported 14 times, one was a Kemps Ridley but all the others were probably Leatherbacks.

There were 24 carcasses found on Cornish Beaches during December, 8 were Common Dolphins, 4 were Harbour Porpoises, and one other unidentified dolphin, the other 11 were Grey Seals, 3 of which were pups. Grey Seals were the major part of the casualties on several months last year and one wonders how they manage to maintain a viable population with such losses.  The overall picture of strandings over the past year is however encouraging, for there were less than half the number of cetacean casualties in the previous year.. In 2004 there were 223 and in 2005 this was reduced to 102. The biggest differences were in Common Dolphins and Harbour Porpoises. The Common Dolphins were down from 73 to 43 and the Harbour Porpoises down from 113 to 38.     

Conservation Officer Raymond Dennis

Back to top                                                Back to Conservation Index