Some fifty dead dolphins have been washed up along local shores in the past six weeks. Lindy Hingley of Brixham Seawatch explains how NCI can help.

Dead dolphin washed ashore at Lannacombe

Brixham Seawatch was started ten years ago to gather information about whales and dolphins around the West Country peninsular. It is particularly important to monitor the movements and numbers of cetaceans to ascertain whether the population of the various species is healthy and increasing - or the contrary.

There is increasing concern about the numbers of stranded whales and dolphins washed up on South Devon shores. These have to be dealt with promptly in order to carry out a postmortem whilst they are still in a fresh condition. It is important to find out why so more many creatures are dying, particularly in the last ten years and especially during the winter months.

This is an area where NCI can help, reporting sightings of whales and dolphins - alive or dead - as promptly as possible so that Brixham Seawatch can deal with the animals quickly. Speeding up the up the procedure of examination means they are able to reap maximum information to find out exactly what is happening. A dolphin which is too decomposed yields little information.

A recent report states that many dolphins get caught in fishing nets and Lindy hopes that the Fisheries Minister will act soon to cut the death toll of dolphins off the regions coast. She thanks all NCI stations - and the members of the public who also report sightings - for their help and support and hopes the information will continue to come in to protect our precious cetaceans and ensure a healthy population for the future.