Status: 11/26/2021 12:01 p.m.
The German Wildlife Foundation has chosen the common harbor porpoise as Animal of the Year 2022. But the supposed honorary title is primarily intended to draw attention to the growing threats to the species.
The common porpoise is the animal of the year 2022. With this choice, the German Wildlife Foundation wants to draw attention to the increasing threat to marine mammals.
The harbor porpoise is the only whale species to be found all year round in the North and Baltic Seas, mainly in shallow waters near the coast and in estuaries. But the animals are spotted less and less. On the Red List of Threatened Species maintained by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the porpoise is already considered to be critically endangered.
Harbor porpoise sightings are becoming increasingly rare.
Image: picture alliance / dpa
Fishing becomes dangerous for the porpoise
One reason is the close-knit gillnets that are used in fishing and in which the whales often get entangled. In addition, the population of some fish species is declining, among other things due to overfishing, such as herring, sprat and mackerel. However, these serve as a source of food for the porpoise. And after all, a common harbor porpoise has to eat around ten percent of its body weight every day in the form of fish, molluscs and crustaceans, explains Klaus Hackländer, CEO of the German Wildlife Foundation.
Another risk to harbor porpoises is rivers and oceans being contaminated by pesticides or oil.
Too much noise can be fatal for animals
And then there is another problem that one hardly anticipates at first sight below the surface of the sea: noise. However, porpoises suffer from this due to shipping or the construction of offshore wind power plants. “Like all toothed whales, porpoises use ultrasound waves to create an acoustic picture of their surroundings for orientation and partner search,” Hackländer continues. The noise threatens the animals to lose their orientation, which can even lead to death.
Whales play an important role in the ocean cycle, according to Munich-based “Whale and Dolphin Conservation” (WDC):
They mix nutrients in the sea and, through their excretions, promote the growth of phytoplankton, which produces over half of the world’s oxygen. Their bodies serve as huge CO2 stores and are a valuable source of food for life in the deep sea after they die.
Better protection required
The German Wildlife Foundation is therefore calling for harbor porpoises to be better protected – for example by means of soundproofing devices during construction work at sea. The finely spun fishing nets should also be made recognizable for whales.
The Animal of the Year has been chosen in Germany since 1992, by the Protection Association of German Wildlife until 2016 and since then by the German Wildlife Foundation. The choice always falls on a species that is increasingly considered to be endangered. The animal of the year 2021 was the otter, by the way.