Dolphins

(Photo credits: unknown)

About one month into the MV Wakashio disaster, dead dolphins/porpoises/cetaceans have begun to wash up on the South East Coast of Mauritius. At the time of writing, the Ministry of Ocean Economy reported that 17 cetaceans had been found.

Dolphins/cetaceans have always been seen with joy and amazement. They were considered omens of good luck by the ancient Greeks. They act as good indicators of the health of marine ecosystems, and help keep them in balance by feeding on smaller fish and squid. Owing to their intelligence and social patterns, India even declared them to be protected as "non-human persons".

Seeing their lifeless, distressed bodies has understandably provoked anger, shock and grief amid Mauritian citizens who have demanded a full inquiry into their death.

This tragedy, however, is but the tip of the iceberg of ways in which human beings impact dolphin/cetacean life. Hopefully, the concern of Mauritians provoked by this sad situation will lead us to reflect upon human impact on dolphin/cetacean/marine life, and act upon it.

Dolphins are affected in multiple ways by anthropogenic activity. The fishing industry in particular is especially lethal to dolphins. When fishing vessels capture species such as tuna (to cater for growing demand - where do you think your sushi comes from?), they tend to also, accidentally catch other species such as small cetaceans, turtles and non-target fish species in their nets.

These accidentally-caught species, known as "bycatch" are usually discarded, as vessels are usually under an obligation to report (and pay for) everything they catch in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of a country. As such, we do not have an accurate picture of how big the proportion of bycatch is, and have even less information on the granularity of these figures. The fishing industry has grown, with capture fisheries shooting from 69 million to 93 millon tonnes in the last 30 decades, and expected to grow even further in the next few years as more people start relying on fisheries for their protein intake.

In the Indian Ocean, while the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission has banned bottom trawling, and introduced measures such as Resolution 16/01 to tackle overfishing, practices such as gill-net fishing continue, as well as a "race to catch" approach to fishing.

In addition to this, climate change, plastic pollution and habitat destruction are adding further pressure to marine species. While the dead porpoises/dolphins/melon-head whales are undeniably tragic, they are a cautionary tale of the impact of our neglect and destruction of the marine environment. This tragedy should be used to bring about much needed changes.

To begin with, we need to commit to implementing more sustainable fishing measures. These would range from monitoring ecologically sensitive fishing areas with greater accuracy and revising sustainable allowable catches, to introducing fishery closure times during cetacean migration or nursing periods or replacing gill fishing with line fishing or other methods. It would also involve training more Mauritians and islanders to act as observers on various fishing vessels, to introducing more stringent control mechanisms, such as the Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM) system. We should demand greater traceability in our fish produce - but this must be accompanied by giving necessary support at every stage of the fishery value chain to reach certification. Investing in technology including low -cost sensors in vessels and fishing gear, as well as allowing sea-to-table monitoring would yield dividends in the future.

Finally, it is our responsibility to question the things that are out of sight and therefore out of mind. The emotion aroused by the sight of the distressed cetaceans shows the concern that Mauritians have for their marine life. Hopefully, this will be amplified into continuous action to protect it.