More than 10,000 seabirds, over 1,000 whales and dolphins, around 500 seals and more than 120 tonnes of sharks, skates and rays are killed every year as accidental bycatch in UK commercial fishing, according to the first analysis to pull the scattered figures into a single national picture.
The report, published on 10 June by the conservation coalition Wildlife and Countryside Link, also estimates that more than 1,000 endangered Atlantic salmon die in nets annually. Its authors describe the toll as both vast and, for the most part, avoidable.
"Thousands of animals die every year in UK waters because of avoidable fishing deaths," said Richard Benwell, chief executive of Wildlife and Countryside Link.
The species caught up in nets and lines range from razorbills and harbour porpoises to common dolphins, minke and humpback whales. One case study followed a seal nicknamed Legs, recorded entangled in fishing gear for seven years.
Ruth Williams, head of marine conservation at The Wildlife Trusts, said the figures should force a rethink of how the fleet is monitored. "The scale of dolphins, sharks, seals and seabirds accidentally caught in fishing gear is shocking," she said.
At a regional level the problem is just as acute. "Bycatch is the greatest threat to many of our most beloved marine wildlife here in Devon," said Carli Cocciardi, marine nature recovery officer at Devon Wildlife Trust, which helped publicise the findings.
The coalition is not calling for fishing to stop. Instead it wants the government to make bycatch reduction a legal duty. "We need legally binding Bycatch Action Plans, mandatory monitoring across the fleet," said Lucy Babey, director of programmes at the whale and dolphin charity ORCA.
The report points to fixes already proven at sea: weighted lines that sink baited hooks below the depth where seabirds dive, acoustic pingers that warn porpoises away from nets, and modified ropes and nets that lower entanglement rates. Conservationists want remote electronic monitoring - on-board cameras - fitted across all vessels in English waters so the true scale can finally be measured rather than estimated.
That gap between what is counted and what is killed is the report's central charge. Because most UK boats carry no independent observers or cameras, the authors stress their figures are built from limited sampling and are likely to understate the real death toll.
