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Write to your MP

to stop dolphins dying in supertrawler nets

You can help by following the simple steps below to ask your MP to take action on dolphin bycatch.

1: FIND YOUR MP

Follow this link to the government website and enter your postcode in the search bar to find your MP and get their contact details.

2: WRITE YOUR MESSAGE

Here are some tips for writing to your MP:

Include key facts about the problem using the information on our campaign page. For example, you might want to mention that:

  • Hundreds of dolphins are being killed by supertrawlers every year in UK waters.
  • ‘Supertrawlers’ are huge fishing vessels with nets up to a kilometre long.
  • Dolphins and other marine wildlife are unable to escape these supersized nets and end up being needlessly killed as bycatch.
  • Since November 2021, all fishing vessels in UK waters are legally required to report marine mammal bycatch to the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) – however, according to the MMO, no such data exists.
  • This shows that the UK’s legislation is not working and nobody is being held accountable while dolphins and other marine animals continue to lose their lives.
  • The UK government needs to hold supertrawlers to account, starting by making remote electronic monitoring a licensing condition for all fishing vessels over 95m long operating in the UK’s Exclusive Economic Zone.

Don’t copy and paste – if you copy the information above exactly as it is, without changing the wording or adding any extra text, it’s likely that your message will get flagged as spam and won’t even reach your MP. That’s why it’s important to…

Make it personal – try to customise your message as much as possible and make it clear why you as an individual care about this problem and want your MP to take action.

Keep it short – longer messages might not be read properly.

Include your name and postal address so your MP can see that you live in their constituency.

Tweet your MP!

As well as writing to your MP, you can also contact them on Twitter! This can be a quick and easy way to get your message across directly.

If your MP has a Twitter account, a link to their profile should be included with their contact details on the government website.

Simply use this message for your tweet, making sure that you replace @MP_name with the correct user name:

Dear @MP_name, I stand with @WorldCetacean and @SussexDolphin. Please take action to stop thousands of dolphins being killed by supertrawlers in UK waters each year! #DolphinsArentDiscard

3: FOLLOW UP

If you don’t hear back from your MP after a few weeks – try writing to them again.

If your MP writes back – please share their reply with us! You can contact us at info@worldcetaceanalliance.org

Thank you for taking action to stop dolphins dying in supertrawler nets.

Together, we’ll keep pushing for the UK government to end this deadly problem and hold supertrawlers to account.

Can you strengthen our vital campaign by making a donation today?

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You’re in good company

We’ve sent a letter to Sussex MPs, co-signed by 39 leading marine conservation and animal welfare organisations, asking them to support stronger enforcement of UK law to protect dolphins from supertrawlers in the English Channel.

Read the letter and see more campaign updates on our Dolphins Aren’t Discard campaign page.