Postmortaal onderzoek van bruinvissen (Phocoena phocoena) uit Nederlandse wateren, 2016

Summary

This annual report presents the results of post-mortem examinations of porpoises stranded on the Dutchcoast. One of the main objectives of the research is to quantify human-induced causes of death. In 2016, 55dead harbour porpoises were examined: 31 males and 24 females, including 14 adults, 33 juveniles and 8neonates. Most of the harbour porpoises examined died as a result of grey seal attacks (31%), infectiousdiseases (29%) or food shortage (18%). Bycatch was the cause of death in 11% of the harbour porpoisesexamined