Brilliant summing up by David Bullock from LeeSalmonLong, representing the Environmental Law Initiative! I will put up a summary tomorrow. Now we just wait for the judge to decide.
Today is the third and last day of the dolphin court case in Wellington. Should be interesting! Go along to listen if you have time.
If you’re in Wellington, you may want to head to the High Court! There is a hearing going on about Hector’s and Maui dolphin protection, and it’s open to the public. You can just wander in and sit in the back to listen to the lawyers’ arguments. Crown Law are defending the rights of the fishing industry to continue to kill Hector’s and Maui dolphins. On the other side, the Environmental Law Initiative are asking for better dolphin protection, to avoid the extinction of Maui dolphin and the smallest, most threatened Hector’s dolphin populations.
If you're wondering how it has come to such a desperate situation with Hector's and Maui dolphins, check out this article. Hot off the press!
The Ministry for Primary Industries approach to dolphin protection is no longer backed up by science. The International Whaling Commission has reviewed MPI's model and made several strong recommendations to fix it. MPI are dragging their feet on fixing their model, but already it's clear that bycatch is much higher than previously thought (and with much bigger confidence limits). Until the MPI model is fixed properly, there is no longer any scientific basis for figuring out how many dolphins are killed in fishing nets each year - let alone whether this number is sustainable.