The Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas (ASCOBANS) entered into force on 29 March 1994.  Fourteen small cetacean species (dolphins plus the harbour porpoise, Phocoena phocoena) are found in the agreement area. The ten parties (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom; Fig. 96) have agreed to achieve and maintain a favourable conservation status for small cetaceans. The Conservation and Management Plan annexed to the Agreement sets out specific measures to this end.

The most pressing problems in protecting small cetaceans involve incidental bycatch in fisheries, marine pollution, acoustic disturbances in the species’ surroundings from shipping, drilling and detonations, and direct negative impacts for example from speed boats. There is therefore a need for coordinated solutions at international level and for further research to improve methods used both in estimating populations and investigating population dynamics and migrations. Further research is also needed on the impacts of different types of disturbances and on interactions between different impacts. Data collection on these issues is a key part of the obligations set out in the Conservation and Management Plan. From a German perspective, priority tasks under the Agreement include analysing migratory movements in the North and Baltic Seas, adopting internationally coordinated measures to prevent bycatch of small cetaceans in fisheries, and activities to monitor the effects of such measures.

Three small cetacean species are regularly found in German coastal waters. The commonest is the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). The bottle-nosed dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) reared its young in the German North Sea until 15 years ago but is now only a visitor to the area. White-beaked dolphin (Lagenorhynchus albirostris) occasionally move into the central North Sea. The area off the shores of Sylt and Amrum is an important rearing area for North Sea harbour porpoise. In recognition of this, Schleswig-Holstein’s national park legislation has been amended to allow the establishment of a small cetacean protection area that stretches up to the 12-mile line and provides the basis for more far-reaching protection measures that have yet to be implemented

Baltic Sea harbour porpoise have been identified as separate populations at special risk. In response to their threatened status, a special recovery plan for Baltic harbour porpoises (known as the ( Jastarnia Plan) was adopted by the parties to ASCOBANS in 2002 and revised in 2009 ( Jastarnia Plan - 2009 Revision). The aim of the plan is to restore the population to 80 percent of the Baltic Sea ecosystem’s carrying capacity. This can only be achieved if bycatch in Baltic Sea fisheries is reduced to a maximum of two harbour porpoise per year and if additional conservation measures are successful.