A Hector's dolphin at play. Photo: Supplied
An independent legal charity is taking court action over what it says is the government's failure to protect the country's rarest dolphins.
Environmental Law Initiative has filed for a High Court judicial review over the Hector's and Māui dolphin threat management plan, saying it fails to protect the critically endangered dolphins from being killed by the fishing industry.
It said the government needed to be doing more to prevent them from becoming extinct.
The plan, led by the Department of Conservation and Fisheries New Zealand, was developed in 2008 in response to public and government concern about deaths in the dolphin populations that were caused by humans. The Māui dolphin component was reviewed in 2012 and the whole plan was reviewed in 2019/20.
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones said he is aware of the proceedings and is seeking legal advice.
Environmental Law Initiative spokesperson Aaron Packard said Māui and Hector's dolphins were once the most common dolphins in New Zealand waters until their rapid decline.
"Now we've got about 54 Māui dolphin individuals left and one death is considered a catastrophic event for the population, so that's why the Environmental Law Initiative is taking the Minister of Oceans and Fisheries to court over what we say are failures in the Hector's and Māui dolphin threat management plan."
The Māui dolphin is a subspecies of the Hector's dolphin. Photo: Earthrace Conservation / Liz Slooten
The population has rapidly declined from an estimated 2000 individuals fifty years ago.
The Māui dolphin is a subspecies of the Hector's dolphin, having split away from the Hector's population about 15,000 years ago. Hector's dolphins have also declined rapidly, from an estimated 50,158 in 1975 to the current estimate of 15,000 individuals.
In February DOC scientists began work, which will be carried out over two summers, to update the population estimate for Māui dolphins. It was last estimated at 54 individuals, aged over one-year-old, in 2021.
Problems with the plan to protect the world's rarest dolphin
Environmental Law Initiative said the threat management plan focused on set nets and trawl nets as the two major fishing methods that posed risks to dolphins - but did not come up with measures to deal with them.
It alleged that what should have been one of the strongest features of the plan, the fishing-related mortality limit, was applied too narrowly and omitted known Māui dolphin habitat.
"They got it right in the sense that fishing should stop as soon as a single Māui dolphin is killed. But there are large areas where we know Māui dolphins travel to, but there is no mortality limit in place," research and legal director Dr Matt Hall said.
Instead of taking a cautionary approach and offering protection across all non-Maui dolphin habitats, it favoured fishing interests.
He also said the monitoring of the fishing-related mortality limit was not being done as comprehensively as it should be, with cameras or observers.
"The government hasn't done all they can to prevent these dolphins from going extinct. With such low numbers left, we must get this right."
Dolphin Defenders founder and chair Christine Rose said she thought the case had huge merit.
As the only charity dedicated to the preservation, protection and recovery of New Zealand's endemic dolphins, Rose said its members had been involved in the development of every Māui and Hector's dolphins threat management plan.
"We know every threat management plan has failed to do its job, to actually manage the threats to Māui and Hector's dolphins, because they are still being wiped out by the fishing industry."
The Department of Conservation incident database shows at least 26 Hector's dolphins killed by trawl and set nets since the adoption of the last plan in 2020.
Rose said that figure was probably higher because cameras on boats were only rolled out in 2023, not all boats have cameras, and not all footage was reviewed.
She said the plan allowed trawl and set nets, proven to kill, within the dolphins' range, causing suffering and deaths.
"Nothing but exclusion of indiscriminate fishing methods in dolphin habitat will stop dolphins needlessly being killed, and save subpopulations and the wider species from extinction."
A hearing date for Environmental Law Initiative's judicial review is yet to be set.
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