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More than 16,000 dead harbour porpoises have been found on coastlines around the North Sea over almost three decades, according to a new study.

The research, led by Utrecht ľ�ϸ���Ӱ�� in the Netherlands, also shows a significant rise in the annual number in southern areas since 2005.
It included harbour porpoise strandings from five countries between 1990 and 2018, with dedicated schemes from Scotland, England, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark all contributing data.

Lonneke IJsseldijk, who co-led the research, said: “The harbour porpoise is the most abundant species of cetacean in the North Sea.

“Most countries hold records and investigate strandings of the species at a national level but harbour porpoises are a highly mobile species and move independently of these national borders.

“It therefore makes sense to examine these data at a scale that is ecologically relevant and collate data from all individual countries for a population-level overview.”

The study examined seasonal and inter-annual variation in stranding numbers across the North Sea area.

Het is verschenen op 18 augustus 2020 in de Ealing Times.