June 14, 2009
Forest & Bird will be watching closely at the start next week of a court case challenging measures to protect endangered Hector’s dolphins.

The Federation of Commercial Fishermen and three regional fishing groups are taking the Ministry of Fisheries and previous Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton to court for protecting endangered Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins.

In a separate development, the Department of Conservation today announced that a Hector’s dolphin was reported killed in a commercial fishing net off the east coast of the South Island on May 8.

Forest & Bird Marine Conservation Advocate Kirstie Knowles says this latest reported death illustrates the need to extend fishing restrictions rather than weaken them. “The death of another Hector’s dolphin in a fishing net demonstrates that current protection measures are inadequate and that fishing still poses a risk to our endangered dolphins.”

Read full article from Forest & Bird.

Filed under: Ali Perkins, Conservation, News/Current Affairs