Study: Astronomical losses due to a war between fishermen and dolphins on the northern coast of Morocco

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A field study showed that purse seine fishing has a significant impact on dolphin fish in the Mediterranean Sea off Morocco, which prompts them to “learn to attack.”

The study, which was summarized by the “The Conversation” platform, showed that fishing operations prompted bottlenose dolphins to attack the nets of fishing boats, causing significant losses, which in turn prompts fishermen in this region to deliberately catch them, and sometimes kill or injure them.

According to the same source, “The costs of repairing purse-string fishing nets are very expensive. Based on what the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says, fishermen’s losses in Morocco reach 36 percent.”

The research paper, titled Dolphins vs. Fishermen: Both of them are losers in the Mediterranean Sea off Morocco, and prepared by doctoral researcher Mohamed Kazanin from Abdelmalek Saadi University, confirms that estimating the losses resulting from dolphin attacks in the Mediterranean Sea off Morocco is very difficult.

The same source stated that Morocco protects aquatic mammals through a set of international agreements, local laws, and regional laws that link it with the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea.

The author of the study faced challenges in obtaining sufficient information about the number of dolphin attacks on fishermen's nets, and he found only limited amounts of scientific studies that addressed this topic.

Researcher Mohamed Kazanin says, in the research paper published in the latest issue of the magazine, that the study was conducted in 2020, specifically on the coast of Al Hoceima, about 150 km east of the Strait of Gibraltar, using collected data on the number of deaths among dolphins that were recorded during... search.

The study revealed that a total of 121 dolphins were caught in the nets during 48 fishing trips (four trips per month throughout the year 2020), and the death of 11 of the caught dolphins was recorded. Each trip also included one to three fishing operations, indicating that the number of fishing operations that were observed Directly during the search process, I reached 94 transactions.

Subsequently, the same source explained that the cost of repairing the damage to the nets reached 179 US dollars for each incident (about 1,770 dirhams), adding that sometimes losses reach ten thousand dirhams, which prompted fishermen to search for specific places since 2010.

During the study, some Moroccan fishermen confirmed their frustration as a result of the losses caused by dolphins in their fishing nets, especially since their work plays an important role in the local economy of the Moroccan cities overlooking the Mediterranean Sea.

The research paper calls for deepening research into the behavior of dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea, and searching for new fishing techniques other than purse seines.