Campaign highlights dolphin by-catch

A NEW CAMPAIGN was launched in November at Auckland’s Onehunga pedestrian overbridge, near Onehunga Port, to highlight the by-catch risk to New Zealand’s endangered Maui and Hector’s dolphins.

Maui and Hector’s dolphins are the world’s smallest, rarest and “loveliest” marine dolphins, say campaign organisers from the conservation group Maui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders.

Scientists say at least three Maui dolphins are caught every year in New Zealand’s inshore fishing effort. Estimates in 2010-11 suggested only 55 Maui dolphins remain.

Some 95% of Maui and Hector’s dolphin deaths have been caused by gill net entrapment, where the cause of death is known, according to Department of Conservation figures.

“Clearly this type of fishing and the dolphins’ survival is incompatible,” says Maui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders Chair, Christine Rose. “This campaign reminds New Zealanders to think of the dolphins when they buy inshore fish species. Only when recreational and commercial gillnets are removed from the dolphins’ habitat will they be safe from extinction.”

“The campaign is also a reminder against complacency. After the last Maui dolphin net entrapment, the Minister of Conservation of the time, Nick Smith, now Minister for the Environment, promised to increase fisheries observer coverage to 100 per cent in the core Maui habitat over four years, to clarify and quantify dolphin deaths. At last update, almost two years in, only 11 percent, or 54 of 475 fishing days, had observer coverage.

“This campaign calls on the Government to honour its commitment to 100 per cent observer coverage in core Maui habitat, and reminds the New Zealand public of their role in either saving Maui and Hector’s dolphins, or supporting their extinction.”

Onehunga Port is the landing point for much of the fish caught in Maui habitat.

Caption the picture, left, for next month.