Three hundred detectors will be placed in the Baltic Sea to help scientists count the endangered porpoises, sea mammals also known as Baltic dolphins.

The international program, led by experts from the Kolmarden dolphin research centre in Sweden, will involve similar institutions from Finland, Denmark and Poland.

“It will be probably the world’s biggest research project of this kind,” says Professor Krzysztof Skora from the Polish Maritime Research Station on the Hel Peninsula.

The count will last five years.

Thanks to 300 detectors, placed at the depth of five to 50 meters, scientists will register signals emitted by the porpoises for communication and will thus be able to determine their number fairly accurately.

The Baltic population of porpoises, which are a protected species (since 1984 in Poland and since 1973 in Sweden), has declined dramatically. According to rough estimates there are some 600 of these magnificent animals living in the Baltic today.

The majority can be spotted in Swedish and Polish territorial waters. According to WWF Poland the main cause of their gradual extinction are strong, nylon nets used in fishing, which porpoises cannot detect.

They are also driven out of their habitats by ships, motor boats and explosions on maritime testing ranges. It is feared that the Northern gas pipeline built by Russia and Germany will be a serious risk to the porpoise in the Baltic Sea.  (kk)