| Date posted 2008-12-15 |
 |
Protect dolphins from fishing nets |
| The ongoing bycatch of dolphins in New Zealand is endangering the survival of Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins and causing unnecessary suffering. Please join us in urging the New Zealand Government to take action. |
|
Step 1: Please fill in your details (on the right) Step 2: Read the text and add your personalized message (please keep your language firm but polite) Step 3: Send! (and forward this link to friends, family, colleagues or anyone who you think will be concerned). |
| To: Hon. John Key, Prime Minster For New Zealand. Hon. Tim Groser Minister For Conservation, New Zealand Hon. Phil Heatley, Fisheries Minister, New Zealand. |
|
Dear Minister
I write to welcome you into your new role, but specifically to raise a particularly important issue which I believe is bringing into disrepute New Zealand’s exceptional international reputation on conservation issues. The issue is the ongoing bycatch of dolphins, including common dolphins and endangered Hector’s and critically endangered Maui’s dolphins (both of which are endemic to New Zealand waters). Recent research from the UK on the welfare implications of fisheries entanglements for dolphins demonstrates very clearly that as well as the major conservation imperatives associated with protecting Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins, there also exist significant animal welfare imperatives for the New Zealand Government to act strongly and quickly to protect these amazing, sentient animals from further suffering through entanglements. The new research shows that the severe injuries regularly seen in bycaught dolphins are evidence of the suffering victims endure. Rope and netting often cause cuts and abrasions to the skin, tightening as the animal struggles and cutting deeper into the flesh. In extreme cases, fins and tail flukes can be totally or partially amputated by the tightening nets. The research provides evidence that bodies of bycaught dolphins are commonly recorded as having broken teeth, beaks or jaws and extreme internal injuries. Recent records of Hector’s dolphin mutilation from the Department of Conservation show that the number of mutilated Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins found on the New Zealand coastline has more than tripled in that past three decades. It is highly probable that at least some of these animal were accidentally caught in fishing gear, their injuries being sustained from their entrapment and possible further mutilations received as those responsible attempt to hide the evidence. In my view, this is completely unacceptable from an animal welfare perspective. It is difficult to envisage such poor standards for animal welfare being tolerated on land in New Zealand during commercial meat production, where an equivalent situation would involve the incidental and traumatic capture and suffocation of an endemic mammalian species during commercial meat production associated with another species. The New Zealand Government has a strong and compelling international voice on issues such as whaling and has recently provided cabinet level in-principle support for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare; a United Nations level proclamation of the importance of animal welfare issues. Totally incongruous to these international commitments is the domestic reality that, at this point, the incidental capture of dolphins in fishing nets in New Zealand is permitted to continue, posing significant risk to these populations and considerable suffering for the individual dolphins involved. |
| Your addition to the letter |
| [Your Name and Address will be inserted here] |
|
|
Further information:
Read our reports
Sign up for our newsletter
Read our blogs
