15 June 2011

Common dolphins are becoming rare in the Mediterranean



The time has come to turn good intentions into actual conservation action

Once one of the most abundant cetacean species in the Mediterranean Sea, the short-beaked common dolphin (Delphinus delphis) has declined throughout the region since the 1960s. The primary causes of this decline include prey depletion caused by overfishing and incidental mortality in fishing gear. Today, common dolphins survive only in small portions of their former Mediterranean range, while in most areas they have become rare or are completely absent.