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Dolphins Becoming Increasingly Reliant on Fishing Trawlers for Food
Researchers said 76% of trawlers off Marche were followed by dolphins, a sign the animals may be struggling to find enough prey.
- A new study published in Frontiers in Mammal Science reveals Adriatic bottlenose dolphins are increasingly relying on fishing trawlers, with researchers observing animals scavenging behind 76% of trawlers off Marche, Italy.
- Years of intensive bottom trawling have flattened habitats and depleted prey in the Adriatic, leaving bottlenose dolphins as the last apex predators; study lead author Giovanni Bearzi noted this behavior reflects desperate need to find food in an overexploited sea.
- Between 2018 and 2025, researchers conducted 859 inspections over 148 days, finding dolphins followed 41% of otter trawlers and 35% of midwater boats—a sharp increase from just 10% observed in the 1990s.
- Foraging near nets poses significant risks, including potential hearing damage from noise and accidental injury; Randall Reeves, chairman of the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, added that "finding sufficient prey away from trawlers in an overfished sea may be too difficult."
- Halting trawling could allow the ecosystem to recover, as Bearzi cited an Australian bay where dolphins reunited fractured social groups within a decade after trawling reductions, indicating rebound is possible if human encroachment is managed.
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Dolphins becoming increasingly reliant on fishing trawlers for food
Conservationists say their findings suggest there isn't enough prey for the dolphins to hunt elsewhere.
·Missoula, United States
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Hunting yourself? This is laborious - especially in the completely overfished Mediterranean. Dolphins often prefer to rely on the ships that empty their seas in the Adriatic Sea, according to a study on nutrition, largely on trawl fishing. "The long-term, continuous and targeted presence near trawlers indicates a strong dependence on this fishery," said lead author Giovanni Bearzi, president of the research organization Dolphin Biology and Conse…
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