Lutra 55(1)_Smeenk_2012

Book review: The harbour porpoise in the Netherlands: will it get the care it deserves? An urgent conservation plan

Conservation plan for the Harbour Porpoise Phocoena phocoena in The Netherlands: towards a favourable conservation status. Kees (C.J.) Camphuysen & Marije L. Siemensma 2011. NIOZ Report 2011-07. Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, Texel, the Netherlands. 183 pp.

In the past few decades, several reports and recommendations concerning the status and conservation of the harbour porpoise in Dutch waters have been issued; and in numerous publications, both scientific and popular, the plight of the only truly indigenous cetacean in the southern North Sea has been discussed. As usual regarding species that were once common, not much attention had been paid to the harbour porpoise by (marine) biologists in the past, until an alarming decline became apparent in the 1950s and particularly the 1960s, culminating into the near disappearance of the species from Dutch coastal waters. The alarm having been raised, it turned out that....