Net snares dolphin

A marine expert wants a special inshore Kaikoura fishing area abolished after a protected Hector's dolphin drowned in a commercial net.

The Hector's dolphin died inside the four nautical-mile zone, where set netting is typically banned around much of the country.

The Kaikoura area was negotiated by the Te Korowai Trust o Te Tai o Marokura.

It allows for commercial netting one nautical mile offshore around the Kaikoura Canyon.

The Hector's dolphin's death in May last year was the only one officially logged since the dolphin-threat management plan for Hector's and Maui dolphins was introduced in late 2008. Hector's dolphins are classified as nationally vulnerable.

Dr Liz Slooten, associate professor of zoology at Otago University, wants the Kaikoura fishing area abolished, and Kaikoura's net ban pushed out to four nautical miles in line with national regulations.

The dolphin drowned in a commercial gill net 1.3 nautical miles offshore, south-east of the Haumuri Bluffs.

Slooten said that area was a well-known hotspot for Hector's and dusky dolphins.

She said the trust made an error of judgment in negotiating the fishing area and had undermined its environmental credibility.

"If Kaikoura offered the same protection as the rest of the South Island's east coast, the Hector's dolphin would not have died," Slooten said.

Trust chairman John Nicholls said the fishing area, which covered a few square kilometres, was developed to help sustain the local fishing industry.

To Slooten's claim that the site of the dolphin's death was a hotspot for the species, Nicholls said the area's creation was based on the best information at the time.

The trust had asked the Ministry of Fisheries for the latest observer-programme data on the exact circumstances of the dolphin's death, he said.

The information would be considered as the trust developed the marine-mammal section of its coastline-management strategy, Nicholls said.

- © Fairfax NZ News