On the Moroccan Mediterranean coast, hundreds of boats equipped with large nets, called purse seines, go out six days a week to fish for small pelagic fish (coastal or oceanic fish).
In the last two decades, seine fishing has become more difficult as bottlenose dolphins attack the catch and pierce the nets, which extend like a wall into the sea. These nets are expensive to repair, and dolphins are sometimes caught, injured or killed.
Economic loss as a result of dolphins’ interference with purse seiners is difficult to estimate. The Food and Agricultural Organisation has estimated up to 36% losses by fishers and between 9% and 19% per ship annually in Morocco. The agency, in conjunction with the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean, is developing a protocol for better data collection.
