Report to the European Commission on the Implementation of Regulation 812/2004 by the United Kingdom for the Calendar Year 2009

This report summarises ongoing work on the implementation of Council Regulation 812/2004 during the calendar year 2009 by the UK. The work is focused on two areas, firstly on the development of measures to minimise cetacean bycatch and secondly on monitoring fisheries to estimate the total mortality of cetaceans in relevant UK fishing operations. Estimates of cetacean bycatch for 2009 were of 620 porpoises and 260 common dolphins, though caveats apply to these estimates.

Work on mitigation focuses on the use of an acoustic deterrent device (DDD). These devices are being successfully trialled in the UK component of the midwater pair trawl fishery for bass in the Western English Channel. A variant of the same device is being tested by several vessels using gillnets and tangle nets in the Western Channel and Celtic Sea, and results so far suggest that this is a viable means of minimising cetacean bycatch in these fisheries too. These trials will be expanded to include further vessels in 2010.

Monitoring has been focused on pelagic trawls in ICES divisions VIa and IVb, on the bass midwater pair trawl fishery in Division VIIe, on a wide range of static gear types in subarea VII and on static gear in the North Sea (subarea IV). Bycatches of porpoises and common dolphins are reported from several gear types in subarea VII. Unstratified (and therefore potentially biased) estimates of bycatch for these two species amount to some 620 porpoises and 260 common dolphins in 2009, when bycatch observation data are pooled over four years to generate bycatch rates per operation.