dolphins

Two dead dolphins bearing the scars of a final struggle in large fishing nets were today delivered to the French government as Greenpeace renewed calls for a ban on pair trawling - a form of fishing which is estimated to kill thousands of dolphins in the Channel every year.

The dolphins were recently recovered in the Channel by the Greenpeace ship Esperanza and stored in a freezer container. One of the mammals was lactating when her body was discovered, indicating that she had recently given birth. Sixteen French pair trawlers were fishing in a 12-mile radius of her body.

Greenpeace activists today continued their campaign to protect dolphins in the Channel by trying to stop two French 'pair trawlers' from fishing for sea bass. Greenpeace swimmers put themselves in the path of the two vessels Sonia Jerome and Cote d'Amour in an attempt to stop them pair trawling - a fishing method that traps and drowns dolphins in the giant net towed between the two vessels.

Greenpeace has launched a legal challenge in the High Court against the government in order to save dolphins from being caught and killed in large fishing nets.

The environmental group filed papers seeking a ban on all fishing boats from pair trawling for sea bass within 200 miles of the UK - a type of fishing which is responsible for the deaths of over 2,000 dolphins in the Channel every annual fishing season.

Historic move welcomed by Greenpeace
The government today committed to banning the UK pair trawling fishery which is responsible for hundreds of dolphin deaths every year in a move welcomed and congratulated by Greenpeace.

Greenpeace has found seven dead dolphins in under three days while investigating fishing fleets in the English Channel. All the dolphins found had drowned and had suffered damaged beaks and torn flippers - injuries likely to have been caused trying to escape from huge fishing nets commonly used to 'pair trawl' in the area.