- Today there are only a few hundred porpoises in the Baltic Sea. They are unique and important in the Baltic Sea Ecosystem, says Ida Carlén.

Sweden has designated Hoburgsbank and Midsjöbankarna as a protection area for porpoises as early as 2016.

- It is good. It's just the right place. This is an important area where 75 per cent of the Baltic Sea tumors are in summer to reproduce.

Plan but no action

The County Administrative Board of Gotland works on a conservation plan for the tumblers in the area and has 2 years in accordance with current EU regulations. But Ida Carlén, thinks it's far too slow.

- That's true, but in 2016 Sweden, when the area was designated as a protection area, would have started with strong measures to protect the porpoise, it has not been done, says Ida Carlén.

Requires fishing bans and pingers

Ida Carlén believes that there is a need to prohibit fishing with nets in the area so that the thumbs do not get caught in the nets. In the remaining Baltic Sea, requirements need to be imposed on thumbnails in the networks, so-called "pingers", low noise that scares the tumors away from the networks.

Susanne Viker, an investigator at the Sea and Water Authority, says that a process is underway to get measures against the fishery in the protected area before the end of the year. Ida Carlén believes that it should be introduced immediately. Susanne Viker says it is a complex international issue in which many countries and its fishing industry are involved.

- Discussions should have already started when the protection area was identified in 2016, since the Baltic Sea tumbler is the only choice in the Baltic that is dying out, says Ida Carlén.