The Minister of Fisheries is considering whether to compromise protection for Hector's dolphin. New protection measures were put in place in 2008 by the previous fisheries minister (Jim Anderton), who was taken to court by the fishing industry as a result. The new minister is right now considering two compromises to the protection measures:

• Reducing protection for North Island Hector's dolphin from 7 to 4 nautical miles offshore
• Giving fishermen an exemption to fish inside the protected area off the coast of Marlborough in order to catch butterfish

Please send an email to:

Phil Heatley, Minister of Fisheries: p.heatley@ministers.govt.nz

Kate Wilkinson, Minister of Conservation: k.wilkinson@ministers.govt.nz

Asking them not to further compromise protection for Hector's dolphins. The current protection measures are not yet effective and urgently need to be improved.

Please see below for more information.

Reasons for declining both of the proposed compromises above:

The North Island Hector's dolphin population, also known as Maui's dolphin, has been reduced by past entanglements in fishing gear (mostly gillnets and trawl nets) to only about 100 individuals. For a population this small it is very difficult to be certain exactly how far offshore they travel. The concensus among scientific experts and representatives of the fishing industry, iwi, conservation groups and other interested groups is that the population can stand no more than 1 dolphin mortality in fishing gear per 5 years. This basically means that fisheries mortality needs to be reduced to as close to zero as possible. What's urgently needed is an extension to protection measures for Maui's dolphins, not a reduction in the level of protection.

Maui’s dolphin is Critically Endangered. Population recovery is extremely unlikely while the Taranaki area, the southern part of the range of Maui’s dolphin, is left unprotected. Likewise, protection in Tasman Bay and Golden Bay would benefit Maui’s dolphin in that this would provide a pool of potential recruits to replenish dolphins lost from the North Island population. Maui’s dolphin is unlikely to recover in isolation. Recovery for Maui’s dolphin is extremely unlikely unless the boundaries of the protected area  are extended further offshore and further south.

To achieve recovery within 50 years would require a ban on gillnet and trawl fisheries throughout the known habitat of Maui’s dolphin (i.e. Maunganui Bluff to Cape Egmont). i.e. No gillnet or trawl fisheries could be conducted in this area at all, regardless of the distance offshore. A compromise option would be to provide protection for Maui’s dolphin to at least 6 nmi offshore and south to at least Cape Egmont. By contrast, to further reduce protection for Maui’s dolphin (e.g. by removing protection between 4 and 7 nm offshore) would be contradictory to any definition of precautionary decisionmaking.

The fishing industry’s request for an exemption for fishermen targeting butterfish off Marlborough is without any foundation. The highest densities of Hector’s dolphins are found close to shore. There is no reason to believe that butterfish nets are any less likely to catch Hector’s dolphins and there are good reasons to believe that they are a higher risk than other forms of gillnetting.

The Ministry of Fisheries has had two years to gather data on the butterfish issue. Yet, insufficient information is available from observers placed on fishing vessels in order to estimate the risk of butterfish gillnets to Hector’s dolphins. Observers covered only 9 fishing days during November and December 2008. No further observer coverage has been reported. Likewise, it appears that no surveys have been commissioned to determine the distribution of Hector’s dolphins in and around the proposed exemption areas for fishermen targeting butterfish. Given the lack of research effort to determine the risk of butterfish gillnets to Hector’s dolphins, a precautionary decision will need to be made.

The two issues that were referred back to the Minister of Fisheries by the High Court need to be considered in the context of the existing protection measures for Hector’s dolphins and recent research information on their effectiveness.

Analyses of the effectiveness of the current protection measures show that New Zealand has a long way to go in properly protecting Hector’s dolphin. Several Hector’s dolphin populations are still declining because the current protection measures are inadequate. For example, Hector’s dolphins on the west coast of the South Island are routinely found to 6 nautical miles (nm) offshore. Yet there is no protection from trawl fisheries and protection from gillnet fisheries only extends to 2 nm offshore and only for 3 months of the year. This population will continue to decline.

The poor effectiveness of the current protection measures is confirmed by the results of the observer programme. Three dolphins have been caught on fishing vessels carrying observers. Observer coverage has been very low so far (2-10% for the first year of the observer programme). In addition, the observers have made many Hector’s dolphin sightings in areas that have no protection measures (e.g. Tasman Bay, Golden Bay, beyond 2 nm offshore on WCSI, beyond 4 nm on east coast South Island).

Ad-hoc exemptions to the protection measures implemented in 2008 have already caused several dolphin deaths. For example, 2 Hector’s dolphins were killed in 2009 off Kaikoura. The local fishermen lobbied for an exemption to the dolphin protection measures, which extend to 4 nm offshore on the east and south coasts of the South Island. The exemption area includes shallow, inshore waters where Hector’s dolphins are routinely seen by dolphin watching boats and researchers. In addition, a dead dolphin with net marks has been found on the west coast South Island.

The last thing the Ministry of Fisheries should be doing is adding additional exemptions to the protection measures such as have been requested for WCNI and ECSI. Instead, it should be urgently improving the existing protection measures, in order to fulfil its obligations to the New Zealand public and to international agreements to which NZ is a signatory.

For more information click here.

Other people working to better protect Hector's dolphins include:
Humane Society:  www.hsus.org
Facebook: Hector's and Maui's dolphin SOS

Don't use gillnets and eat only dolphin-safe fish

Please do not use a gillnet, and persuade your family and friends not to. These nets are a major risk to Hector's, Maui's and other dolphin species in New Zealand waters, as well as seabirds and reef fish.

When buying fish, ask the people in the fish shop how it was caught. If they can't guarantee that it wasn't caught in a gillnet, don't eat it. If you get answers like "don't know" or "in a net, I think" you could ask the person if there is any fish for sale in their shop that was definitely not caught in a gillnet, or try another shop.

You can donate towards research and conservation work through the New Zealand Whale and Dolphin Trust. All donations great and small count! The New Zealand Whale and Dolphin Trust is a registered charitable Trust, donations of more than NZ$ 5 are tax deductible (IRD no. 61286969). To make a donation you can choose from the following payment options;

• Send a cheque to the Trust at the address below
• Make a cash advance to our Trust account (see details below)
• Contact our legal advisor, Garth Lucas to set up a bequest in your will
• E-mail, write or phone to personally discuss your donation with us.

We appreciate your support!