Driftnet rules offer respite for sea mammals

MEPs will next week (14 February) vote to allow dolphins to swim more safely in EU waters. But environmentalists say the regulation on driftnets, on which Parliament is only consulted, does not go far enough.

Driftnets, or long fishing nets, are mainly used to catch salmon. Large sea mammals like dolphins and porpoises are known to often be accidentally killed in the panels of netting.

Large driftnets were banned for all species except salmon in 2002, with a total ban coming into effect next year, but no clear definition of a driftnet was included in the agreed ban. This has led to legal challenges against Italy, France and Spain, which are accused of giving driftnets a different name and continuing to use them.

The Commission last year proposed defining a driftnet as "any gillnet held on the sea surface or at a certain distance below it by floating devices", whether the net is attached to a boat or a buoy and whether or not its floating is restricted.

MEPs at a full sitting in Strasbourg are expected to support the Commission regulation, but environmentalists say it does not go far enough.

A Commission spokeswoman said a clear definition was needed to make the legislation easier to understand in EU countries and to help new member states step in line with the drift net rules.

"We are convinced that the legislation as it stands at the moment is clear and that most member states have complied with it," the spokeswoman explained.

But drift net opponents hope the new binding definition will make it easier to challenge countries flouting the ban.

Gaia Angelini of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said her group welcomed the new definition "in principle".

"We need it because of the existing different types of driftnets used in member states," Angelini said. But she warned it would be difficult to make some EU countries drop their longstanding preference for driftnets, nicknamed ‘walls of death’ by IFAW.

Saskia Richartz of environmental group Greenpeace added that the new definition would not prevent the use of driftnets in the Mediterranean. A 2005 Mediterranean fisheries regulation approved the use of ‘anchored floating gillnets’ which Greenpeace says are basically driftnets.

Richartz said the Mediterranean regulation risked "undermining both the existing EU driftnet ban and the new driftnet definition".

With illegal driftnet fishing rampant in EU waters, "it is a real concern that the new driftnet definition will not be able to address the loopholes contained in the Mediterranean regulation", she added.

MEPs will next week (14 February) vote to allow dolphins to swim more safely in EU waters. But environmentalists say the regulation on driftnets, on which Parliament is only consulted, does not go far enough.