Little guys taking on the big guys
Last week on World Wildlife Conservation Day, Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders, our small, grass-roots organisation, took an appeal against the US Government in the US Court of International Trade. We are supported by the legal teams in EarthJustice and Law of the Wild.
The claim takes the US Government to task for its ‘arbitrary and capricious’ acceptance of the NZ Government’s claim that New Zealand’s rules around Māui dolphin bycatch are comparable with US standards.
Therefore importation to the US, of fish caught in Māui habitat, should be banned under the US Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972). The US Marine Mammal Protection Act says that fish imports must be prohibited if they fail to meet the US bycatch standards.
There are a number of areas where the New Zealand rules are incompatible with the US standards.
The NZ rules for bycatch use a different population model, imprecise and unenforceable Fisheries Related Mortality Limits, and a Māui fisheries management area which is smaller than the dolphins’ range. The NZ rules also allow more Māui dolphins and other marine mammals to be killed by the fishing industry than would be acceptable under US law.
It’s also not just Māui that the New Zealand government is failing, but also North Island Hector’s dolphins, common dolphins (also facing extinction), orca, baleen whales, seals and turtles which are all killed in the North Island Māui habitat by the fishing industry.
No dolphin should be killed in a fishing net. Māui and Hector’s dolphins used to be the most common dolphins around New Zealand’s coast. Both the US and the NZ Governments must take action to protect Māui dolphins now.”
Successive governments have failed Māui and Hector’s so their numbers continue to decline. Māui and other small Hector’s subpopulations, which are genetically and geographically distinct, continue to be driven to extinction. We’re calling on the US Government to enforce its own rules, and to prohibit the importation of fish from Māui habitat.
Māui dolphins are the world’s rarest marine dolphin. That’s unacceptable. We’re hoping this court case will drive better protection which Māui - and Hector’s so desperately need.
It feels like a bold move, here we are, a tiny organisation, speaking up for the world’s smallest dolphin, found only here, taking on one of the biggest countries of the world. But if not us - then who, and if not now, then when?
We must all be a nation of Dolphin Defenders, including the New Zealand government. So far, the state is failing dolphins, and failing us. And so is the US government as it fails to uphold its own Marine Mammal Protection Act.
So bring it on, we’re the little guys, taking it on for the smallest dolphins, against the big guns in the States. And we’re here for the dolphins.
Thanks for your support.
Posted: 10 December 2024