NZ’S A DOLPHIN HOPE SPOT

New Zealand’s coastal waters have been declared a marine Hope Spot by international conservation alliance Mission Blue – a move designed to prevent the extinction of Māui and Hector’s dolphins. Dr Barbara Maas from the German conservation group NABU International Conservation Foundation, together with University of Otago dolphin expert Prof. Elisabeth Slooten, had championed the area as a Hope Spot. It covers most of New Zealand’s more than 17,000km coastline up to a depth of 100m, and ranges from sub-tropical in the north to sub-antarctic in the south.

These rich waters also boast a spectacular variety of marine species, many of which are rare and can be found nowhere else – New Zealand sea lions, yellow-eyed and little blue penguins, fairy terns, Buller’s and Royal albatross, as well as a population of at least 718 pygmy blue whales.

It also touches the migratory paths of some of the great whales, as well as long-finned pilot whales, white sharks, basking sharks and spinetail devil rays. Māui and Hector’s dolphins in particular have drawn worldwide attention as scientists watched their numbers decline sharply since the 1970s. Māui dolphins are now the rarest marine dolphins on Earth.

NABU International vice-president Thomas Tennhardt has welcomed the news. “We have been campaigning for a ban on gillnets and trawlers and an end to oil and gas exploration and extraction in the dolphins’ habitat in concert with international scientific institutions, for years. Under the motto ‘One for all! All for one!’, our Hope Spot is intended to help put in place long overdue measures to protect these unique waters and facilitate the dolphins’ recovery before it’s too late.”

“Although there are only around 50 Māui dolphins left, just 19 percent of their habitat is protected from fishing with gillnets and just five percent from trawling,” says Maas. “Under these conditions, the dolphins’ extinction is inevitable and time is running out.”

Led by legendary oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle, Mission Blue strives for an upwelling of public awareness, access and support for a worldwide network of marine protected areas – Hope Spots.

Earle first launched the Hope Spots programme in 2009 to generate public support for a global network of marine protected areas.

While around 12 percent of the world’s land area enjoys some form of protection, less than six percent of the ocean is protected in any way. Hope Spots are intended to bring about a significant increase in ocean protection from less than 6% today to 30% by the year 2030. For more information visit www.hectorsdolphins.com