Speaking truth to power
Thanks for all your support as we strive to keep New Zealand’s dolphins alive.
This month we’ve been busy speaking truth to power in creative and impactful ways.
We took two life size dolphins to the Environmental Defence Society (EDS) conference in Tamaki Makaurau.
The Conference is a big deal, with around 500 attendees in person and online, including other environmental groups, government officials and MPs.
We were also one of only four poster presentations chosen for display in the main conference antichamber, which sparked a huge number of moving conversations with people from the Parliamentary Commission for the Environment, biodiversity finance, environmental organisations, and others who have had life changing dolphin encounters.
Our poster presentation at the Environmental Defence Society conference in May
Especially important for us was the attendance of the dangerous Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Shane Jones, and the passive Minister of Conservation Tama Potaka. We made sure that Hector’s dolphins were in the room for both their talks, though Shane Jones kept his eyes closed for most of his session, ignoring the dolphin in the room.
Shane Jones ignores the dolphin in the room and says there will be no changes to bottom trawling rules in this term of government
I approached Tama Potaka holding a dolphin, and he was surprised at their small size. I managed to give him a flier and a spiel about how it’s in everyone’s interests to protect Hector’s, including the fishers who actually kill dolphins- some of whom have said they’d willingly exit the trawl sector if they had financial assistance to do so.
There’s a precedent for that - the Labour Government previously allocated $7million to fund a fisheries transition out of Māui and Hector’s habitat. Minister Potaka agreed to meet with me in the future to discuss those options.
Christine gives Conservation Minister Tama Potaka the word Photo: Bianca Ransom
Former Labour Minister for Oceans and Fisheries, Rachel Brooking also said she was in favour of financial incentives to move small inshore commercial bottom trawlers out. Bottom trawling killed 12 Hector’s dolphins in 2023-4, and we’re waiting for a date for a meeting with her and other Labour MPs including Rachel Boyack (Oceans and Fisheries spokesperson) and Priyanka Radhakrishnan (Conservation).
At a panel of MPs, Labour’s Rachel Brooking says she supports financial incentives to support small inshore bottom trawl fishers to move elsewhere
We were also happy to stand with Green MPs Lan Phan and Teanau Tuiono as Dolphin Defenders, and will update and resend our briefing papers to them too.
Green MPs Lan Pham and Teanau Tuiono, with Dolphin Defender committee members Christine Rose and Virginia Woolf
Local elections are coming up this year, and next year there will be a general election. So now’s the time to make sure local, regional and national candidates are all Dolphin Defenders.
As a result of our presence at the EDS conference, we’re also meeting with the Seafood NZ CEO, in June, and we’ll be calling for a solution that gets trawl and set nets out of Māui and Hector’s habitat.
All the while, our case in the US Court of International Trade, against the US Government’s failure to uphold its Marine Mammal Protection Act is being heard in the next couple of weeks.
If you’d like to support our work, you can donate directly via MAUI’S AND HECTOR’S DOLPHINS EDUCATION / ACTION and the number is 38-9012-0678151-00. Thanks to all of you who already do.
We’ll keep you posted as all these efforts progress. Long live Māui and Hector’s dolphins. Thanks again for all your support.
Legendary scientist and environmentalist Mike Joy, Dolphin Defender, says ‘Save the joy’
Posted: 11 June 2025