News
Baltic Sea Campaign: Another porpoise found dead
Monday, 14 Aug, 2017
On August 11, 2017 the crew of the Sierra found the body of a dead harbor porpoise floating in the water when they were on their way back from Eckernförde (Germany). The Sierra was patrolling the Baltic Sea together with the M/V Emanuel Bronner, so they were able to quickly recover the dead porpoise. It was 1.2 meters long, indicating that it is another juvenile. The finding was immediately reported to the local authorities and the dead animal was taken in by the officials. They estimated that it died approximately 10–20 days ago.
Experts will perform an autopsy to determine whether the porpoise died because of gillnets, military exercises, poison from ammunition waste in the Baltic Sea or an illness.
“Sadly, this incident proves once again that the Baltic Sea is a dangerous habitat for these endangered marine mammals. Our volunteers of the Baltic Sea Campaign will continue getting to the bottom of the reason for the declining numbers of harbor porpoises,” says Anne Kämmerling, Director of Sea Shepherd Germany.
“The protected marine areas are still only protected on paper, this has to change! Fishing with gillnets and other human activity have to be banned from these protected areas.”