UK Government blamed for Thames whale death

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UK Government blamed for Thames whale death

 

24 January, 2006 - A EURO MP has blamed the UK Government for the

death of the bottlenose whale in the Thames at the weekend.

Conservative MEP and fisheries spokesman Struan Stevenson says that

if Britain adhered to the requirements of the EU's Habitats

Directive, the doomed whale may not have swum for miles upriver to

its death.

Under the directive, member states are required to grant strict

protection to whales, dolphins and porpoises, to designate special

areas of conservation and to undertake comprehensive surveillance to

ensure that cetaceans are not at risk.

Speaking in Brussels, Struan Stevenson, a former President of the

Parliament's Fisheries Committee, said:

" The European Commission has already launched infringement

proceedings against the UK for not adequately monitoring how

effectively our cetacean population is being protected. A first

written warning was sent to the Government at the end of last year.

However, the tragic death of this bottlenose whale, together with

the on-going massacre of dolphins in the English Channel and off the

coast of South West England, will almost certainly lead to a

referral to the European Court of Justice.

" In the past month alone 20 dolphin carcasses have been washed up on

beaches from Falmouth to Whitsand Bay. Eleven were discovered on a

single day. Most of them bear scars consistent with having been

caught in pair-trawling nets used primarily by vessels targeting sea

bass outside the UK's 12-mile limit, or in gillnets set by inshore

fishermen within the 12-mile limit. Either way, the UK government

has a duty to provide adequate protection to these animals and it is

clearly failing in that duty.

" There is also increasing evidence that Low Frequency Active Sonar

(LFAS) used by the US and British Navy can cause injury and death to

fish, whales, dolphins and porpoises over vast areas of the marine

environment. LFAS is used to detect quiet submarines in shallow,

confined waters. Scientific analysis has shown that injuries caused

by these sonars have led to whales and dolphins becoming

disorientated, stranding and dying. Even fish exposed to LFAS

signals have suffered internal injuries, eye hemorrhaging, auditory

damage and subsequent death. I understand that a post mortem

examination of the dead bottlenose whale is being conducted to see

if this may have been the cause of its losing its way and swimming

so far up the Thames.

Alternative methods for underwater surveillance exist and should be

used in preference to these noise pollutants which are now known to

cause widespread death and injury to fish and sea mammals.

" I intend writing to Fisheries Commissioner Joe Borg, asking him to

investigate whether the death of this whale and the increased death

of dolphins around the UK coastline is further evidence that the UK

has failed to implement fully the Habitats Directive. "

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