Ministers have the fate of entire Māui dolphin species in their hands
Wednesday, 6 November 2019
OPINION: Government ministers around the Cabinet table are accustomed to making weighty decisions about our future, but it's rare that the fate of a unique New Zealand species lies in their hands.
That's the position ministers will be in as they decide soon on a new Hector's and Māui dolphin threat management plan. This plan is the last chance to save Māui dolphins and reverse their slide towards extinction.
Bold action is needed to realise the plan's vision for Māui and Hector's dolphin populations to be 'resilient and thriving throughout their natural range'.
In 2001, there were about 85 Māui dolphins – one of the world's smallest and rarest dolphins – in their habitat around the west coast of the North Island. Now there may be as few as 57 over one year in age.
**READ MORE:
* Tourism earnings from Hector's dolphin 'could quadruple' with fishing ban
* Government's dolphin protection plan is flawed and misleading
* Net ban to save dolphins 'will wipe out Taranaki fishing industry'**
Hector's dolphins, while less threatened, continue to fall victim to set and trawl nets and other human-related threats, risking local extinctions in their South Island coastal habitats.
The Government proposed several options for the conservation of Māui and Hector's dolphins, which were put out for public consultation earlier this year. Government ministers have received final advice from their departments, and are due to make decisions in the coming weeks.
These decisions will be critical for the dolphins, but a failure to put in place appropriate protection could also expose New Zealand to a US trade ban on our fish exports.
Improved protections were proposed in the consultation paper, especially for Māui dolphins, but they did not go far enough in reducing the human-related threats, especially from fishing.
Māui dolphins are on the brink now largely because of historic fishing bycatch. Today even extremely rare bycatch events must be prevented, and the only acceptable goal to aim for is zero bycatch.
With this unique New Zealand dolphin teetering on the edge of extinction, half-measures, or untested mitigation methods, would be an unacceptable gamble. There is no room for delay in acting to protect them.
Modelling work shows that the non-natural death rate for Māui dolphins needs to start coming down within five years and to be reduced by 50 to 75 per cent within a decade if extinction is to be avoided.
The recent Ministry for the Environment marine report outlines the increasing cumulative pressures on the marine environment, including the impacts of climate change. These pressures highlight the need for a precautionary approach in preventing the loss of species and ecosystems.
Forest & Bird believes that a failure to ban set netting and trawling throughout the Māui dolphin range would indicate New Zealand is unwilling to take the necessary steps to ensure the dolphins' recovery.
The fishing industry has claimed ending set net and trawl fishing in dolphin habitats will destroy the livelihoods of fishing families. Forest & Bird believes some of the claims are exaggerated, but supports financial assistance going to affected fishers to help them change to dolphin-safe fishing methods, move their fishing outside dolphin habitats, or if necessary to find other work.
Threats to Māui and Hector's dolphins also include the disease toxoplasmosis, caused by a parasite in cat faeces washed into the sea. Urgent action is required to quantify this threat, and find ways of reducing it.
Human impacts must be removed as quickly as possible from Māui dolphins' entire habitat. The threats on which we can take immediate action include fishing impacts, and seismic surveys and other activities related to oil, gas and other marine mining activities.
We must not be the generation that allowed Māui dolphins to become extinct. The world expects us to save them, and New Zealanders demand it.
* Katrina Goddard is Forest & Bird's marine conservation advocate