For immediate release 11 August 2009

Another Hector's Dophin Washed Up Dead - How Many More Will It Take?

On August 3rd, a dead Hector’s dolphin was found on a beach 1km east of the Waikoau river, Te Waewae Bay. According to the Department of Conservation, the cause of death has not yet been established. However, we do know that the main cause of death for these dolphins is entanglement in gill and trawl nets, and that as a result Hector’s dolphins are threatened with extinction.

Hector’s dolphins are endemic to New Zealand, and are the rarest marine dolphin on earth. Entanglement in fishing gear has reduced the total population by three quarters since 1970. Today just 111 of the north island subspecies, the Maui’s dolphin, are left alive. The population around Te Waewae Bay, to which the unfortunate dead animal almost certainly belonged, is thought to number less than 100. If they continue to die in fishing nets, they will be lost for good, not just from New Zealand but from the entire world.

“The solution to this problem is simple and relatively inexpensive”, says British charity Care for the Wild International’s Chief Executive Dr Barbara Maas. “Excluding commercial and recreational gill netting and trawling from the dolphins’ range would enable the species to recover to 15,000 in the next 50 years. If we don’t, chances are they’ll go extinct. Protection measures brought in last year are a start, but don’t go far enough to guarantee recovery.”

In their attempts to overturn even the modest protection introduced last summer, fishing industry representatives claim there is not enough information to justify such measures, that very few dolphins die in nets, and that the economic consequences of protecting the dolphins is too great a price to pay. It has even taken the Government to court over this. But none of these arguments are true. “Hector’s are one of the best studied dolphin species in the world”, says Dr Maas. “Moreover, current observer coverage on boats of 4% to monitor entanglement falls woefully short of the 80% needed to provide a reliable estimate. The few dolphin captures that are witnessed are simply the tip of the iceberg. Finally, commercial gill netting brings in less than half of one percent of New Zealand’s income from fishing.”

Every Hector’s dolphin that turns up dead on a beach represents one more blow to this imperilled species. Those seen entangled by government observers or found washed up on beach represent a mere snapshot of the total death toll. To help uncover the truth, Care for the Wild International is appealing to the public to walk the shores and report any stranded dolphins to the Department of Conservation.

What price do we put on the survival of a species? ENDS

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