NABU: New Zealand’s fishing industry must follow through on Māui dolphin protection
Berlin – Last week fishing companies Sanford and Moana New Zealand announced plans to eliminate fishing-related threats
to Māui dolphins across their range in a bid to prevent their extinction. But the industry’s plans will miss their mark
unless they are rolled out across the area’s entire fishing fleet, and their scope and schedule of implementation are
brought in line with scientific necessity.
Māui dolphins are the world’s smallest and rarest marine dolphin. Since the 1970s, entanglement in fishing nets has
driven down the population by more than 95 percent. Only a tiny remnant population of some 50 individuals survives off
the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island.
Sanford and Moana New Zealand’s plans include the end of gillnet fishing under the companies’ catch entitlements in part
of the dolphins’ northern habitat from October 2017. The companies plan to continue their trawl fishery across of the
dolphins’ home until at least December 2022.
“The survival of a quarter of the world’s mammals is threatened,” says Thomas Tennhardt, CEO of NABU International. “New
Zealand’s Māuis dolphins share life at the very cusp of extinction with animals such as lowland gorillas, Sumatran
tigers and Javan rhinos, which far outnumber them. Globally, at least 308,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die from
entanglement in fishing gear each year. Gillnetting and trawling are known to pose the greatest risk. While we welcome
Sanford and Moana New Zealand’s gesture, the proposed timeframe and range of measures proposed will not prevent the
demise of New Zealand’s most endangered inhabitants.”
“More than 100 commercial gillnet vessels operate in the dolphins’ habitat,” explains NABU International’s Head of
Endangered Species Conservation, Dr Barbara Maas. “Sanford and Moana New Zealand’s proposals would merely reduce this
number by five boats ten months from now.”
“Because there are no recognised dolphin safe trawling methods, trawling by the companies’ and other inshore fleets is
set to continue across 95 percent of the dolphins’ home for a further six years. Our calculations indicate that Māui
dolphin numbers will drop well below 30 by 2020, the equivalent of just 7 breeding females. We simply can’t wait if we
want to ensure Māuis survive or ‘recover and expand’, as envisaged by Sanford and Moana New Zealand.”
NABU International has been fighting for a science-based conservation regime for Māui dolphins for many years. This
includes raising awareness that fishing poses a serious threat to the dolphins’ survival and their habitat boundaries
from Maunganui Bluff in the north to Whanganui in the south out to a water depth of 100m, including harbours. To ensure
the dolphins’ survival, the organisation has also been advocating the development of a socio-economic compensation
strategy to support the transition of affected fishermen to alternative livelihoods or sustainable, selective fishing
methods that do not impact Māuis dolphins or other protected species.
“We commend Sanford and Moana New Zealand for being the first fishing companies to acknowledge these scientific
realities,” says Maas. “Unless this new basis of understanding is translated into comprehensive action, trawling and
gillnet will continue to decimate New Zealand’s beleaguered dolphins.”
ends