Sea Shepherd is pleased to announce a new patrol boat for Tamaki Makaurau / Auckland: Fox Fraher.

Fox Fraher (Fox Fr-ahh) was purchased by Sea Shepherd with the help of private donors including two donors for whose son the vessel is named. Sea Shepherd is supported by individual donations and receives no Government or other public funding.

Fox Fraher is suitable for sailing through trickier or more dangerous waters such as the bar of the Manukau Harbour to access the west coast Maui Dolphin habitat. It will be deployed to observe and document Māui outside the four-nautical-mile zone, where they remain unprotected from trawling. And as a trailer boat, Fox Fraher can be used to help other organisations working to protect marine wildlife and habitats.

Until late 2020, the area of Maui habitat protected from trawlers was a mere two nautical miles off shore. The government has since extended it to four nautical miles and made misleading and heroic false claims of protection. Maui along with its cousin Pahu (Hector’s) have been scientifically confirmed out to 100m depth, approximately 20nm. So although the protection area for Maui has indeed increased, it’s still is only about 10% of their habitat for trawling and 30% for gillnets. The NZ Government and DOC have made statements acknowledging this as fact.

"The surveys also indicate that while many sightings of Maui’s dolphins occur within the current 4 nautical mile (7.4 km) trawl fishing restricted area, there have been sightings of Maui’s dolphins outside this protected area. This is publicly documented by government websites showing maps of confirmed Maui sightings and habitat boundaries. So even the government agencies setting the commercial trawl zones can’t argue that the protection area is not insufficient" Says Fox Fraher skipper James Boshier.

“Sea Shepherd NZ's intention is to further document and publicise evidence that the commercial fishing boundaries in place remain insufficient and the Maui protected area needs to be extended immediately. We hope to engage New Zealanders to put more pressure on Government to provide adequate protection before the inevitable extinction of this precious species. Maui dolphins are endemic to Aotearoa, and they should be treated no differently to the more effectively protected endemic species such as the iconic Kiwi, our internationally known symbol”.

In launching Fox Fraher and calling for the expansion of the protection range, Sea Shepherd intends to build on recent victories in the battle to save the Māui dolphin and restore the slow-breeding species to healthy numbers.

In response to a lawsuit brought by Sea Shepherd against the United States Department of Commerce under the Marine Mammal Protection Act to protect the critically endangered Māui dolphin, the United States Court of International Trade ordered a ban of imports of nine fish species caught off the west coast of the North Island. The ban specifically applies to set-net and trawl fisheries operating in Māui dolphin habitat.

Describing the ban as “a victory for independent science,” Michael Lawry, Sea Shepherd NZ’s Managing Director, says the science in the case “clearly demonstrated the methods used by the fisheries at issue – indiscriminate set nets and trawls – were putting the endangered Māui dolphin at greater risk of extinction.”

Fact Sheet

• In addition to the new Fox Fraher Sea Shepherd has two other small patrol boats. It hopes to expand its fleet further in the next couple of years with a larger vessel; a 20-metre boat with the fit-out the organisation requires costs around $1 million, and naming rights are available to philanthropic individuals or organisations who wish to support the mission.
• Sea Shepherd brought its lawsuit against the United States Department of Commerce because set-net and trawl fisheries that overlap with Māui dolphin habitat result in injury and death to dolphins in excess of United States standards. The preliminary import ban will remain in place until the United States makes a valid finding that New Zealand’s regulatory programme for the fisheries is comparable in effectiveness to the United States regulatory programme or until the court case is fully resolved.
• A Threat Management Plan for Hector’s and Māui dolphins came into effect on 1 October 2020. Hector’s and Māui dolphins are only found in New Zealand waters and together are one of the world’s rarest dolphin species.
• As part of this plan new commercial and recreational set-net closures out to four nautical miles offshore were created between Cape Reinga and Maunganui Bluff, and between Hawera and Wellington.
• An extension to commercial trawl closures between Maunganui Bluff and Pariokariwa Point were put in place, extending south to the Waiwhakaiho River (New Plymouth) and to four nautical miles offshore. This falls within the central Māui dolphin habitat zone.
• A change to the regulations allows the Minister to act immediately to impose further restrictions if a single dolphin is caught in the Māui dolphin habitat within the west coast of the North Island.

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