31 August 2010 – Wellington

Forest & Bird media release for immediate use

Forest & Bird calls for better protection for endangered dolphins

Conservation organisation Forest & Bird calls for the Ministry of Fisheries to choose the best ways to protect endangered Maui’s and Hector’s dolphins from fishing set nets.

Today, the ministry asked for public feedback on how to manage the threats to the rare native dolphins from fishing in two areas. This follows the fishing industry’s partially successful legal challenge to the previous Minister of Fisheries’ measures to protect Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins announced in 2008.

Forest & Bird supports the ministry’s proposal to protect Maui’s dolphins off the North Island’s west coast. “This is the only option to improve the chance of survival for the world’s rarest marine dolphin,” Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Kirstie Knowles says.

The independent conservation group also urges the ministry to extend protection of the native dolphins into other areas, such as Taranaki, where Maui’s dolphins have been recorded.

Forest & Bird does not want commercial fishing for butterfish off the top of the South Island east coast to continue – which is the ministry’s preference. “The fishing method used to catch butterfish has been banned to protect Hector’s dolphins in other areas off the South Island coast. Hector’s dolphins feed in the same areas where butterfish are caught,” Ms Knowles says.

“The Ministry of Fisheries should use this consultation to extend protection where Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins have been killed in commercial set nets. This includes Kaikoura, where two Hector’s dolphins have recently been killed.”

Hector’s dolphins are classified as nationally critical by the Department of Conservation and listed as an endangered species threatened with extinction by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Just 7000 Hector’s dolphins are estimated to remain.

The North Island sub-species – Maui’s dolphin – numbers just 111 individuals. Maui’s dolphins are the rarest marine dolphins in the world.

ENDS

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