maui's dolphins
Maui's Dolphin caught in a net, photo from Care for the Wild International
An email from a friend and a programme i heard last night on National Radio reminded me about the plight of the Maui's dolphins (Popoto)- a subspecies of Hector dolphins, found off the northwest coast of NZ. The Maui's Dolphins are the world's rarest marine mammals. In the 1970's, there were over 26,000 of them, but we now have only about 111 left, an estimated 25 of which are thought to be breeding females. The reason for their sharp decline in numbers? Set net fishing. Dolphins cannot detect the fine nets in the water, and once they have swum into one and become entangled, they drown. A set net ban is in place in part of the dolphin's area, but not in harbours, and also, dolphins near the South Island are being drowned in coastal trawl nets. They also die from general marine pollution, and from being struck by boats.
DOC and the Ministry of Fisheries have recently released a Draft Threat Management Plan for the species. The public has been invited to comment on the plan by Oct 24th. To show your support for OPTION 3 in the plan (the highest level of protection for the creatures) you can write to: hectorstmp AT biodiversity (dot) govt (dot) nz
There's a list of other ways in which you can help here. These include writing to the Minister of Fisheries, and of Conservation, signing this petition, and becoming a supporter of WWF.
It would be so great to have your help in this! It seems horribly sad to let these beautiful mammals drown in nets - we must do everything we can to help preserve them.
goodness I will get on to this. only 111 left.
_kimberlee
Posted by:kimberlee | October 19, 2007 at 12:45 PM
I am so pleased you posted this - I didn't realise their numbers had declined so much - 111 is a real wake-up call.
Posted by:Jacinta | October 19, 2007 at 03:45 PM
it is amazing what conservation can do. Here in California, our sea otters were nearly extinct. Now you can see them dotting the waters along the coast.
Well done, thank you for the heads up!
Posted by:beth | October 19, 2007 at 05:30 PM
..that is so sad... I felt a pang of sadness at your post yesterday with the 'polluted sea'. They are going crazy here with excitement because gold has been found in Ireland... when are they going to stop depleting and polluting things and spend the money developing clean and cheaper industries? If we didn't need so much money for "things" we'd work less hours, everyone would be less stressed etc... Phew..soapbox back under the bed... I will check out the WWF thing, we used to get campaign emails, but not recently for some reason. Xxx
Posted by:caireen | October 19, 2007 at 09:18 PM
I feel so bad for these poor creatures. We had a similiar problem with Sea Turtles getting caught in shrimping nets back in the late eighties. The fisherman/shrimperman had to buy expensive nets with special turtle release thingies........ they went crazy!
Started causing trouble........ enough so that the Coast Guard had to patrol and break down the organized demonstrations they began. (My ex-husband was in the Coast Guard at the time and took part in this).
All in all.... they had to comply and as far as I know, the turtles are better.
I truly hope these dolphins will find help.
Posted by:judi | October 22, 2007 at 07:01 AM
thank you for this info m.... such a sad situation!
xox
Posted by:amisha | October 22, 2007 at 12:22 PM
Hi Melissa, sad stuff about these dolphins! I was reading your Mum's blog - it is a rare occassion to see a photo of you! I really like your brown pants - where did these lovelies come from?
Posted by:kate | October 22, 2007 at 01:59 PM
gosh..this reminds me of a report i heard on radio abt ppl catching dolphins for consumption. u can read more abt it here: http://www.savejapandolphins.org/
it's really depressing how they're treating these creatures..
Posted by:Jezica | October 23, 2007 at 06:00 AM
We have long been supporters of the WDCS and I'll take a look at these links now. Thanks for this post these issues need to be highligted by ordinary folk as well as charities and celebs.
Posted by:carolyn | October 23, 2007 at 06:00 AM
We heard about this a little while back. It is so terribly sad. We are also members of WWF. We did it as a family project with my oldest. He thinks it is pretty great that we are helping out a little. We signed the petition too.
Posted by:Regina | October 23, 2007 at 06:39 PM
This is so sad! Thank you for sharing this information...
Posted by:Chara Michele | October 24, 2007 at 05:08 AM