CAMPAIGNERS have welcomed new measures to protect rare marine creatures.
The European Union wants commercial fishing boats in some areas to fit acoustic warning devices known as "pingers" to scare dolphins and porpoises away from their nets.
There could also be a compulsory scheme of shipboard observers to monitor catches to check for any dolphins, porpoises or whales.
And driftnets are likely to be phased out by 2007.
The EU announced proposals yesterday to extend the new measures to the Baltic so the waters of North West Europe would be safer for dolphins, whales and porpoises.
But what effect will the proposals have on South West Wales in particular?
Mark Stafford, deputy director of the Swansea based South Wales Sea Fisheries Committee, said, "There are very few cetaceans [the scientific word for dolphins, whales and porpoises] caught by accident in this part of the world.
"Obviously the odd one or two get caught but the nearest area to Wales where there are large numbers of cetaceans is off the Devon and Cornwall coast.
"But the commercial fishing fleets in South West Wales will welcome these new measures because the damage done to the image of the fishing industry by accidental catches of cetaceans is immense.
"There is no doubt though there will be a cost element for the local fishing industry.
"We have not had detailed costings yet for these so-called pinger devices but the idea is they should be placed at certain intervals along nets so it could add to quite a sum.
"Commercial fishing is a business and this will be seen as an additional cost.
"But the overall benefits for the industry and obviously for the cetaceans will be worth it in the end."
Thousands of dolphins and porpoises die every year in EU waters after becoming accidentally trapped in fishing nets.
An EU driftnet ban came into force in 2002 applying to all boats fishing in EU waters and to EU boats in any waters but only to those catching names species such as tuna and swordfish.
In Devon and Cornwall, the death toll of dolphins and porpoises is high.
Glyn Ford, the Labour MEP for the South West of England, said, "In this region more than 200 were found dead around Devon and Cornwall between January and March this year ... that's a rate of two a day."
Many of these fatalities are thought to have been caused by trawl nets, often towed by pairs of boats.
The new proposed measures to protect cetaceans have yet to win the approval of EU fisheries ministers and the European Parliament.
Mark Simmonds of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said, "The involvement of the European Commission in this problem is very good.
"But it would be wrong to think the pingers are going to be silver bullets. They work on some nets, but not all.
"And with this system there is a danger of parts of the sea being turned into dolphin exclusion zones.
"However, anything that takes us in the direction of observers on boats must be right and we welcome that."