Highly threatened Baltic harbour porpoise demands stronger action

17 May 2013 (HELCOM Information services) – Celebrated this Sunday, the International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise brings to the fore the critical situation of this threatened species. HELCOM for many years now has been actively contributing to the protection of the harbour porpoise in the Baltic Sea through its everyday work.    

Sunday 19 May 2013 is the International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise, to raise awareness of the critical situation of this species which is threatened according to HELCOM list of threatened species. Harbour porpoise is the only “whale” – species of cetacean – native to the Baltic Sea, and one of the smallest marine mammals worldwide. In 2002, the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans in the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (UNEP/ASCOBANS) declared to dedicate the third Sunday of May each year to this rare species, listed in the Annex II of the EU Habitats Directive as animal species whose conservation requires the designation of special areas.

The SEAL Group of HELCOM, consisting of regional marine mammal experts, scientists, and managers as well as representatives of the fisheries sector, has since 2006 worked for the wellbeing of the harbour porpoise.  The regular meetings of HELCOM SEAL ensure that the harbour porpoise database is under constant review, and that the national plans regarding Baltic marine mammals would be harmonised with the HELCOM seal conservation objectives.

The harbour porpoise is one of the smallest cetacean species, in the Baltic reaching an average length of 1.45 m for males and 1.60 m for females. It inhabits temperate coastal and shelf waters, and primarily feeds on cod, herring, sprat and gobies. More information about the species can be found in the related Baltic Sea Environment Fact Sheet.

According to various studies, there are two populations of the harbour porpoise in the Baltic Sea: one in the western Baltic (southern Kattegat, the Belt Sea, the Sound and the German Baltic) and a second one in the Baltic Proper. As shown by the initial results of a threat assessment carried out by the HELCOM RED LIST project, both populations are threatened. Especially the population inhabiting the Baltic Proper has declined dramatically over the past 100 years and there are indications that it is actually facing extinction. The status of harbour porpoise is negatively influenced by certain human activities, including incidental by-catch, prey depletion, noise pollution and chemical toxins. Specific data on Baltic harbour porpoise sightings, by-catches and strandings are displayed in the HELCOM Map and Data Service. This coordinated reporting system and database has been developed in co-operation with ASCOBANS (Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas).

The protection of harbour porpoise in the Baltic Sea area has been addressed in HELCOM Recommendation 17/2.  Particularly the necessity of reduction in the by-catch rates is accentuated as means of achieving the ecological objectives of the Baltic Sea Action Plan.

As a top predator, the harbour porpoise is an indicator species for the past and present environmental conditions in the Baltic Sea. The currently on-going HELCOM CORESET Project has created core biodiversity indicators for the Baltic Sea, along with other sets of core indicators, to jointly assess the state of the marine environment and to follow the effectiveness of any protection measures. Out of the biodiversity indicators, the following also concern the harbour porpoise: (1) population growth rate, abundance and distribution of marine mammals; (2) pregnancy rates of marine mammals (pending on more data for harbour porpoise); (3) number of drowned mammals and water birds in fishing gears.

Event page in HELCOM website

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Note to editors:

The Baltic Marine Environment Protection Commission, usually referred to as HELCOM, is an intergovernmental organisation of all the nine Baltic Sea countries and the EU which works to protect the marine environment of the Baltic Sea from all sources of pollution and to ensure safety of navigation.

HELCOM is the governing body of the "Convention on the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Baltic Sea Area," known as the Helsinki Convention.

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For more information, please contact:

Ms. Maria Laamanen
Professional Secretary
HELCOM
Tel: +358 46 850 9198
Skype: helcom101
E-mail: maria.laamanen@helcom.fi 

Ms. Johanna Laurila
Information Secretary
HELCOM
Tel: +358 40 523 8988
Skype: helcom70
E-mail: johanna.laurila@helcom.fi