By-catch is the accidental capture of marine mammals in fishing nets. There are many different fishing techniques and some of them are a huge threat to Whales Dolphins and Porpoises. Gill-net fisheries have been responsible for a large number of porpoises killed around the UK coastline, such as the one below.

Pair-trawling for Sea Bass (where two boats tow a large net between them) off the South West coast of England has been responsible for a large number of Dolphin deaths in the past 10 years. DO YOU WANT TO HELP STOP THIS LOSS OF OUR MARINE WILDLIFE? You can write a letter to help these creatures, please please do this simple thing! You can write to Fisherman's Organisations, Fishing Companies, and the Supermarkets that sell the fish, and you can get a comprehensive list of addresses by sending an e-mail to liz@marineconnection.org and ask for Bycatch list. PLEASE HELP THESE BEAUTIFUL GENTLE CREATURES THAT LIVE AROUND OUR COASTLINE, AND HELP PROTECT THEM SO THAT FUTURE GENERATIONS CAN CONTINUE TO ENJOY THEIR PRESENCE IN THE SEA. For more info go to these websites: www.marineconnection.org www.bdmlr.org.uk www.wdcs.org www.mcsuk.org www.ci-dolphins.org.uk www.rspca.org.uk Live links to these sites can be found by clicking the 'LINKS' button on the menu bar.