1.5 minutes to save the porpoise in Germany

The harbour porpoise is the only species of whale native to German waters. It can be found in both the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. With a bit of luck, you can see or even hear it from the shore off the islands of Sylt, Fehmarn and Wilhelmshaven. When it exhales, it makes a distinctive noise that sounds like a blowing or snorting sound.

Unfortunately, the porpoise's sweet snorting is heard less and less often. The small whale is in worse condition, especially in the central Baltic Sea. Only around 450 individuals live there, which means that this porpoise population is acutely threatened with extinction (Amundin et al., 2022). Nevertheless, politicians remain inactive, because the marine protected areas only exist on paper: shipping traffic, the construction of offshore wind turbines or oil and gas exploration using sonar are common practice (Carlén et al., 2021). The noise produced in this way disrupts the porpoise's orientation and communication and can, in extreme cases, lead to deafness and even death (Morell et al., 2021).

WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, is the world's leading non-profit organization dedicated exclusively to the protection of whales and dolphins. For years, WDC has been committed to effective marine protected areas and has already achieved partial successes, such as an annual ban on gillnets from November to January (BUND et al., 2023).

But in order to protect the porpoise sustainably, the German government must immediately and permanently ban gill nets and other fishing methods from protected areas! Because the nets hardly produce any echo and thus can often not be located by the small porpoise. As a result, it swims into the nets, gets tangled up and does not make it to the sea surface in time to breathe. Far too often, pregnant or lactating females also die in this painful way, a great loss! Because every individual that dies is more than the threatened population can cope with (BUND et al., 2023). But there is hope: The porpoise population of the central Baltic Sea was recently included in Appendix I of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS for short), a great success (CMS, 2024)! This means that the Baltic Sea states are now called upon to take emergency measures to “take the fins” of the threatened Baltic porpoise.