Saving Maui’s dolphins
There were up to 29,000 Hector’s dolphins in the 1970s, but today there are only about 8000 left. Scientists say they will continue to decline unless we place restrictions on the fishing methods that are killing them.
This afternoon 111 school children representing the estimated 111 remaining Maui’s dolphins (which are a subspecies of Hector’s dolphins) presented a 25,000 strong e-petition and 7,000 person paper petition to Local Government and Environment Select Committee Chair Moana Mackey on behalf of the Prime Minister.
The petition calls for all set net fishing and trawling to be banned in the dolphins’ habitat. Maui are on the verge of extinction and we need to remove all threats to give them a change of survival. But, as Russel noted last week:
The statistics on Hector’s Dolphin mortality clearly shows that nearly two-thirds of deaths, where cause of death is able to be established, are caused by set nets.
November 15th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
Not only is the Maui dolphin under threat: what about Migaloo?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2007/11/12/eawh ale112.xml&CMP=ILC-mostviewedbox
Linda Axford
November 15th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Frog
On this you have my full support, where can I sign this petition?
November 15th, 2007 at 8:38 pm
BB, there was a submission process - you could email being run by DoC an Ministry of Fisheries. You could email submissions to Hectorstmp@biodiversity.govt.nz, but the info I have is that this closed on 24 October, so not sure if they would accept late ones. But still worth trying.
I’ll email Metiria Turei to see what she thinks people can best do now on this issue - you can never gurantee that MPs will pick up stuff on this blog of their own volition, given their workload.
An email to the Minister of Conservation Steve Chadwick schadwick@ministers.govt.nz, and the Minister of Fisheries Jim Anderton janderton@ministers.govt.nz would be useful though.
Apart from that, we could get on a boat and disrupt the set net fishing. I’d be up for it, but then we might be designated as terrorists and get 14 years in jail for doing that, eh BB? Committing illegal acts that jeopardise New Zealand’s economic interests. Especially if we took a couple of spear guns for protection - there are some pretty rough people in the fishing industry.
Bugger - the things we have to face to try to save an endangered species!
November 15th, 2007 at 11:55 pm
How about a more on the ground easy to do thing. Just talk to a couple of your friends, acquaintances, family, etc… about the issue. The more on the ground support for the issue the less ability the government has to cop out.
November 16th, 2007 at 12:58 pm
Rather like their copping out over battery cages and sow stalls you mean. Over 100,000 submissions against, a sucessful appeal to the Regulations Review Committee and the government still ignores public opinion, scientific and legal arguments and kow tows to the battery egg and pig industry. My experience of Anderton leads me to believe that on the ground support means less than nothing. Extinction of a species means less than nothing. If his bosses in the fishing industry want to keep fishing, a little thing like ethics, science or public opinion is not going to stop him allowing them to do that
http://www.epf.org.nz
November 17th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Toad
You orgainse the boat and I will be there!…..just do me one favour, PLEASE do not bring Keith.