Minke whale’s rare activity off constituency of MP launching new mammal report

28 June 2023

The BBC has reported that, just as the cross-party parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee was preparing to launch a report on how to protect marine mammals, a minke whale made a rare leap out of the waters off the coast of the constituency of the Chair of the Committee, Sir Robert Goodwill MP.

Sir Robert Goodwill (Con) represents the constituency of Scarborough and Whitby. The BBC’s York and North Yorkshire Region reported that the minke whale breached the waters off Scarborough on June 22, just as committee staff were putting the final touches to the report published under embargo today.

Wildlife photographer Steve Shipley took a photograph of the whale leaping into the air as it breached the waves. The BBC regional report said that while it is not unusual to see dolphins and other mammals off the Yorkshire coast, it is rare for minkes to breach the water in this way.

Chair's comment

Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee Chair, Sir Robert Goodwill MP, said:

“This is an auspicious sign for the success of our report. We’ve made lots of recommendations for helping protect marine mammals – in the UK and abroad. But we could never in our wildest dreams have hoped to have them highlighted by a minke whale off the coast of my own back yard in Scarborough.

“That has now come to pass. Our report is well and truly launched. I like to think the whale is asking everyone to read the report -- and asking the government to take its recommendations seriously.”

Key recommendations

A key recommendation in the report is that the government should not sign any new international trade deals unless they contain commitments to protect marine mammals such as dolphins and whales.

The report comes in the context of biodiversity declining at a rate unparalleled in human history.

Marine mammals are among the best-loved and most charismatic creatures on earth. They also play a key role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem through recycling nutrients in the seas. Yet they, too, are part of the threatened biosphere – including in our own country. It is thought that the last remaining coastal community of killer whales in the UK will disappear over the next generation because of a variety of threats.

Worldwide, the greatest threat to marine mammals is from ‘bycatch’ - or inadvertent trapping in fishing gear. A scientific paper suggests that over 650,000 marine mammals are killed in this way every year. As with all statistics on the issue, the true number is unclear. By their nature, many marine mammals swim deep and range far – hidden from the human eye.

Other threats include hunting for meat and body parts (such as walrus tusks). Hunting is still practised in various countries, including Norway, Iceland, Japan and the Faroe Islands.

Underwater noise – such as from offshore drilling – is another danger for animals which depend on their acute hearing more than any other sense. Marine mammals are also threatened by pollution, being hit by boats in busy shipping lanes, rising sea temperatures and disease.

The report recommended that the government should raise the issue of marine mammal welfare with countries which still engage in hunting at every opportunity. The UK’s ‘soft power’ should be used in this way wherever bilateral or multilateral talks take place, including at trade and fisheries negotiations, the report said.

The study also called for better monitoring of, and reporting on, bycatch – through the use of cameras or physical observers posted on ships. The Committee acknowledged that this would be difficult and costly for small fishing boat operators, so suggested this requirement be phased-in over several years, with smaller vessels being given more time and, where necessary, financial help to meet their obligations. The Committee called for an action plan on this, with targets and milestones, by December of this year.

The report said much of the story of marine mammals remains hidden deep in the oceans, and that more information was vital. It called for new solutions to monitor marine mammal populations such as the use of satellites, underwater microphones and artificial intelligence.

However, while some of the story is hidden, some is not - including a legal loophole which allows some marine mammal body parts to be transshipped through UK ports. The report called on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to take urgent steps to close this loophole in the short term and introduce brand new legislation dedicated to protecting marine mammals in the long term.

The Committee Chair, Sir Robert Goodwill MP, said:

“We are rightly appalled when magnificent whales or defenceless seals are deliberately slaughtered. We can and should do more to stop this as we sign new post-Brexit trade deals worldwide.

“But snarling these beautiful creatures in fishing gear wreaks a far greater toll. Starting with the biggest boats, then moving to the smallest – giving the small operators time to adjust – we must stop this industrial-scale killing. We owe it to our generations to come”

Further information

Image: Unsplash