Being a porpoise looks rubbish.
Dolphins look like they have fun. They even look like they
seek out fun. Okay, the fixed grins make them seem perpetually happy but let’s
be honest - when was the last time you saw a porpoise jumping out of the water
or heard a friend gushing about an *amazing* experience seeing porpoises?
There’s good reason that porpoises don’t have the wow factor
of dolphins: and it’s not just that they have bad PR people.
Porpoises are busy: lots to do, fish to eat. They live on an
ecological knife-edge, and need to keep feeding to keep their energy levels up.
They simply don’t have a lot of spare time to be cavorting around. Of course it
doesn’t help their public recognition levels that five out of six of the
world’s porpoise species are small, grey and shy. Mostly they stay local too –
not for them massive migrations or great oceanic treks, porpoises are built for
coastal waters, where they often form distinct local populations.
Some would say that porpoises have the right idea, because they
generally avoid human contact, whereas silly dolphins often seek it out. Sadly
that doesn’t stop thousands of porpoises being caught and killed every year in
fishing nets as bycatch. They face other threats too, including toxic pollution
and increasingly populated coastal seas, with dredging, noise, shipping and
litter all impacting them and their living space.
Porpoises are supposed to be protected. So all of that
‘accidental’ bycatch can’t just be shrugged off as unfortunate – it shouldn’t
be happening. In the UK and around Europe some porpoise populations are now
under genuine threat from the combined effects of bycatch, pollution and
habitat loss. Porpoises are already almost extinct in the Baltic Sea, and
British scientists have warned that persistent pollutants are affecting their
ability to breed and withstand disease too.
Across the globe this week we have seen the stark warning of
just how far we are pushing our porpoises. The tiny, little-seen vaquita,
smallest and cutest of all the porpoises, is on the brink of extinction.
Already-dire reports that less than a hundred animals survived have been
revised downwards – with scientists now thinking there are only about 60 left.
Like all porpoises, the vaquita live in increasingly-busy seas, but the main
threat is fisheries bycatch, the same threat that kills an estimated 300,000 whales,
dolphins and porpoises worldwide EVERY YEAR.
But for vanishing vaquita, every single animal now really matters.
Porpoises might not catch your eye, but they do need your help. You can make a difference by choosing line-caught fish, lobbying for more
and better protected areas for porpoises, and by supporting Greenpeace and other groups
fighting to save them.
And spare a thought for the small, shy, grey animal that just
gives you a fleeting glimpse of fin as it hurries away from you. After all, being a porpoise is rubbish.