Fishing firms "shame" Kiwi gov't with dolphin protection initiative

Two of New Zealand's biggest fishing firms on Thursday announced they would take action to protect the world's rarest dolphin, sparking calls for the government to do more.

Moana New Zealand and Sanford said they were working with WWF-New Zealand to help ensure safe fishing in the only known Maui dolphin habitat along the west coast of the North Island.

The companies announced an action plan to end coastal set netting within a year and remove conventional trawling methods from the habitat by 2022.

The critically endangered Maui dolphin is the world's rarest and smallest marine dolphin, with a total population estimated at just 63.

Under the plan, Moana and Sanford were installing video monitoring on all vessels and boosting research and compliance across the vessels fishing for them.

"We all have a role to play in protecting these mammals. Our livelihoods depend on what's out there in the oceans, and that does not only mean on the species we catch, but the health of the whole ecosystem," Sanford CEO Volker Kuntzsch said in a statement.

Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy and Conservation Minister Maggie Barry welcomed the initiative.

"We have been discussing these options with industry for the last 18 months so it's pleasing to see them taking a proactive, precautionary stance and committing to working with the government," Guy said in a statement.

More than 1,700 square kilometers off the west coast of the North Island had been closed to trawl net fishing since 2003, and over 6,200 square km closed to set netting, he said.

The opposition Green Party said the two companies had shamed the government by taking a step that the government was not prepared to take.

"But without stronger protection sooner from threats such as set nets, trawling and the oil and gas industry, the remaining 63 Maui dolphin left have little chance of thriving," Green Party fisheries spokesperson Eugenie Sage said in a statement.

The Greenpeace environment campaign group said the initiative highlighted the lack of action by a government that was more intent on protecting the fishing industry than protecting the dolphins from extinction.

"The fishing industry has drowned thousands of Maui dolphins over the last few decades in set nets and trawl nets. But the industry has been in denial about their responsibility," Greenpeace New Zealand executive director Russel Norman said in a statement.

"So it is a welcome development that two fishing companies have split from the rest and at last acknowledged the responsibility of the fishing industry for driving these dolphins to the very edge of extinction and have taken a small step to halt the slaughter," said Norman.

"This small step isn't going to make a real difference unless the rest of the industry follows and it goes further." Endit