Dolphins still not secure

Fishing industry efforts to trim protection for endangered hector's and maui's dolphins have had mixed results in the High Court at Wellington, after lawyers for the Federation of Commercial Fishermen attempted to block six proposed bans on set netting and inshore trawling.

The court last week ruled two of these restrictions should be referred back to the Fisheries Minister for reconsideration: the extension of set-net closures on the North Island's west coast from four nautical miles to seven nautical miles and the closure of an area of the South Island's east coast to targeted fishing for butterfish.

But the court upheld four other 2008 restrictions challenged by the fishers. They were:

Extension of a set-netting prohibition further into the Manukau Harbour;

The seasonal two nautical miles set-net prohibition on the west coast of the South Island;

The four nautical mile set-net closure outside Te Waewae Bay in Southland;

A decision not to exempt the targeted fishing of butterfish in the Bluff area.

Other closures of areas around the South Island and on the North Island's northwest coast to set-net and driftnet fishing by recreational fishers were not affected by the judgment and remain in force.

Former Fisheries Minsiter, Phil Heatley said he would seek advice from officials on the implications of the judgment.

"This is an important judgment on a major issue for both commercial and recreational fishers and we are considering it carefully."

Net fishing is the single biggest killer of the two endemic dolphin species, and a 2007 report released by The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) found that between 110 and 150 dolphins drown in commercial set nets alone around New Zealand every year.

Earlier this week a marine mammal expert, associate professor of zoology at Otago University Liz Slooten, said a special in- shore Kaikoura fishing area should be axed after a commercial fisherman caught and killed a protected hector's dolphin there last year.

She said the dolphin drowned in a commercial gill net 1.3 nautical miles offshore, southeast of the Haumuri Bluffs, last May.

New Zealand has signed several international treaties which oblige it to spare the dolphins from extinction.

The WWF New Zealand marine programme manager, Rebecca Bird, said a small section of the fishing industry and its lawyers should not prevail over the will of the New Zealand public, and legislation that was supposed to protect the dolphins.

"We still lack any clear plan to build up their numbers again, " she said. "We should be urgently preparing a species recovery plan."

- © Fairfax NZ News

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