Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
  • Whale watching
Bottlenose dolphins breaching

Landmark report reveals UK wildlife’s devastating decline

With whales and dolphins already facing many threats, a landmark report released this week reveals...
Dolphins with oil rig

Go ahead for new UK oil and gas exploration threatens whales and dolphins

Permission has been granted for the development of the UK's biggest untapped oilfield off Shetland,...
Icelandic hunting vessels in port

Whaling boat kept in port after more hunt cruelty exposed

Icelandic whale hunting fleet One of the whaling boats involved in the latest hunts in...
Commerson's dolphin

New Important Marine Mammal Areas added to global ocean conservation list

Commerson's dolphin Experts from a number of countries have mapped out a new set of...
All policy news
  • All policy news
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Stop whaling
  • Strandings
Sperm whale © Douglas Hoffman

Featured policy news item

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc magna elit, gravida at lectus vitae,...
sea_world_orlando_rob_lott

Holiday giant Thomas Cook stops selling tickets to Seaworld and Loro Parque

Holiday giant Thomas Cook stops selling tickets to Seaworld and Loro Parque Following a three...

Endangered Southern Resident orca loses newborn calf

In heartbreaking news from the Pacific Northwest, the Center for Whale Research has reported that...
srkw_shoup_2003_text

U.S. Defense Bill weakens protections for whales

24 July 2018, Plymouth, MA: The FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act conference report was released...
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
  • Whale watching
Bottlenose dolphins breaching

Landmark report reveals UK wildlife’s devastating decline

With whales and dolphins already facing many threats, a landmark report released this week reveals...
Dolphins with oil rig

Go ahead for new UK oil and gas exploration threatens whales and dolphins

Permission has been granted for the development of the UK's biggest untapped oilfield off Shetland,...
Icelandic hunting vessels in port

Whaling boat kept in port after more hunt cruelty exposed

Icelandic whale hunting fleet One of the whaling boats involved in the latest hunts in...
Commerson's dolphin

New Important Marine Mammal Areas added to global ocean conservation list

Commerson's dolphin Experts from a number of countries have mapped out a new set of...
All policy news
  • All policy news
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Stop whaling
  • Strandings
Sperm whale © Douglas Hoffman

Featured policy news item

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Nunc magna elit, gravida at lectus vitae,...
sea_world_orlando_rob_lott

Holiday giant Thomas Cook stops selling tickets to Seaworld and Loro Parque

Holiday giant Thomas Cook stops selling tickets to Seaworld and Loro Parque Following a three...

Endangered Southern Resident orca loses newborn calf

In heartbreaking news from the Pacific Northwest, the Center for Whale Research has reported that...
srkw_shoup_2003_text

U.S. Defense Bill weakens protections for whales

24 July 2018, Plymouth, MA: The FY2019 National Defense Authorization Act conference report was released...

Dismay as UK Government ‘protected’ areas exclude dolphins and porpoises, again

WDC has reacted with dismay and disappointment at the news that the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has excluded whales, dolphins and porpoises from those species that will be protected by a second tranche of Marine Conservation Zones (MCZ) in the seas around England’s coastline.

The announcement by Defra today is in contrast to Scotland and Wales, both of which already have similar such marine protected areas (or MPAs) for bottlenose dolphins, and Scotland has also proposed MPAs for Risso’s dolphins, minke whales and basking sharks.

Back in In November 2013, Defra expanded the Marine Protected Areas network through the designation of the first tranche of Marine Conservation Zones. 27 MCZs were designated which offer protection to the nationally representative and nationally rare and threatened habitats and species within our seas. Sadly, none included whales, dolphins or porpoises.

WDC believes that these zones and MPAs are both tools that should be used together to provide protection to mobile species, including whales, dolphins and porpoises, where they return to important habitats to feed, breed or to raise young.

The European Commission has repeatedly urged the UK government to designate a special kind of MPA called Special Areas of Conservation for harbour porpoises, and has said that it may refer the case to the EU Court of Justice if the UK doesn’t respond appropriately. 

Therefore, WDC believes that the UK needs to urgently reconsider it’s policies towards mobile marine species so that it is in line with our international commitments, and the rest of the world.

WDC has previously written to Defra to ask them to include common dolphins in East of Celtic Deep MCZ, Celtic Deep MCZ – neither of these sites that have made it into Tranche 2. We also asked them to include common dolphins in the Western Channel MCZ, harbour porpoise within Bideford to Foreland MCZ, and white-beaked dolphins within Farnes East MCZ. These sites are being proposed in Tranche 2.