Harbour porpoises under pressure: Alliance calls for more protection in the area off Sylt

For many water sports enthusiasts, the sighting of a dorsal fin in the murky waters of the North Sea is a rare highlight. While stocks remain stable throughout the North Sea, they have been declining for years in German waters of all places.

Shrinkage on your own doorstep

The figures are clear. According to the German Foundation for Marine Conservation the population in the German North Sea is continuously declining. Between 2002 and 2019, the population shrank by an average of 1.8 per cent annually. However, the overall population remains stable: the international SCANS IV cetacean census identified around 338,918 harbour porpoises in the entire North Sea.

A clear trend can be observed here. Harbour porpoises are increasingly shifting their habitat towards the Netherlands and the English Channel, as stocks of important forage fish are moving there. The whales are following behind. As a result, they end up in an area with heavy shipping traffic and intensive fishing, which in turn has a direct impact on the population.

Alarm signals from the nursery

The situation on Sylt's outer reef, a strictly protected area and important breeding ground for whales, is particularly critical. Despite Protection status the area loses an average of 3.8 per cent of its animals per year, according to the Marine Conservation Foundation. Mothers of harbour porpoises give birth to their offspring there. Protection often only exists on paper, while in reality fishing, shipping and noise continue to put pressure on the populations. The situation is similar on the Dogger Bank north of the English Channel. Although the large sandy area is under European protection, intensive fishing continues there. Danish and British cutters in particular use bottom trawls to catch large quantities of sand eels - important prey fish for harbour porpoises.

The associations' position paper is very clear. The current protection measures are not sufficient to safeguard the population. As marine habitats are heavily impacted by diverse utilisation, an "ecosystem-based approach" is needed. In protected areas, the conservation of biodiversity must take clear precedence over economic interests if the harbour porpoise is to survive off the German coast.

More protection for harbour porpoises

The associations are calling for more consistent implementation and stricter rules in the nature reserve off Sylt and Amrum. In a position paper, they criticise the inadequate implementation of the protected status in practice.

The core demands include a complete ban on gillnets, including for foreign cutters, as well as reduced maximum speeds. Planned high-speed corridors should be cancelled in order to reduce underwater noise and collision risks. With regard to the expansion of offshore wind power, the associations are calling for stricter noise protection requirements for pile-driving work so that the Noise-sensitive animals not be suppressed any further.