Dolphin Conservation: Media Information

Disillusioning Year of the Dolphin 2007

Conservationists disappointed by what has been achieved in the Year of the Dolphin 2007

- one dolphin species extinct

- other species at the brink of extinction

- Conservation agreement for endangered harbour porpoises significantly weakened

3 January 2008 – The UN Year of the Dolphin 2007, launched with a huge media blitz, is lagging far behind the high expectations according to the German Gesellschaft zur Rettung der Delphine (GRD/Society for Dolphin Conservation). "The results are more than disappointing," says Ulrich Karlowski, a biologist with the GRD. "Hardly anything has been achieved for the endangered dolphin populations."

A particularly serious setback is the closure of the Secretariat of ASCOBANS, the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas, GRD continues to say. The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) chose the Year of the Dolphin to close operations of the Secretariat. The new ASCOBANS management, which is now under CMS leadership, seems to be utterly incompetent and does not seem to be up to the challenges posed by the increasing threats to the harbour porpoises living in German waters,” criticizes Ulrich Karlowski.

Moreover, the official Year of the Dolphin campaign has largely remained silent on key issues of dolphin conservation such as over-fishing of food resources, by-catch, dolphin massacres off the Japanese coasts, ordnance recovery in the North and Baltic Seas or the reintroduction of driftnet fishing in the Mediterranean by the EU.

“To date, no funds have been made available to support the protection and conservation of cetaceans whose survival is threatened or endangered. The Year of the Dolphin campaign was characterized by a terrible, and for the dolphins fatal, dissonance between theory and practice," GRD says in conclusion. "It’s almost cynical that the Year of the Dolphin, which was originally meant to last one year, has now been extended into 2008."

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