After 20 dolphins died last year caught in trawl nets dragged by commercial fishing vessels the fishermen of Western Australia have been forced to defend their methods off the Pilbara coast. The Department of Fisheries has released the pictures of dead dolphins believed to have been caught in nets off the Pilbara coast last year. The slaughter of dolphins was legalize in Australia as the number of dolphins caught inadvertently had more than halved in two years as the industry introduced new technology, including devices designed to stop dolphins from being trapped in the nets, opined the WA Fishing Industry Council.
Marine conservation groups warned that the death toll was still too high and more needed to be done. The Council said that the Pilbara trawl fishery is worth $7.5 million a year and is vital in providing fresh fish such as bluespot emperor, flagfish, spangled emperor, rankin cod and red emperor to the WA market. According to the industry using of trawl nets in waters between Point Samson and Port Hedland, which last year produced about 2200 tonnes of scalefish, is the only viable option for fishing the region.
Dr Jill St John, WA Wilderness Society marine coordinator, told that despite vast improvements by the industry to reduce the dolphin bycatch, the mortality rate per tonne of fish caught in the Pilbara trawl fishery was among the highest in the world. Record shows that dolphin deaths in the Pilbara trawl fishery, which are reported in the department’s annual state of the fisheries report, have fallen from 52 in 2005, to 31 in 2006 and 20 last year.
