- No catching rights leased to coastal set netters out to 100m depth north of New Plymouth from October 2017
- No conventional trawling in 100m depth contour after 2022
- Video cameras and electronic tracking on all vessels
- 2017/18 companies to spend $500,000 on research and compliance to support Māui safe fishing
Fishing companies, Moana New Zealand and Sanford are collaborating with WWF-New Zealand to help ensure Māui-safe fishing in the rare dolphin’s habitat along the west coast of the North Island.
The companies have today announced an action plan to end coastal set netting within a year and remove conventional trawling methods from the Māui dolphin habitat by 2022.
Māui dolphin or popoto (Cephalorhynchus hectori māui) is the world’s rarest and smallest marine dolphin. They are only found off the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island in relatively shallow waters.
Moana New Zealand and Sanford CEO’s, Carl Carrington and Volker Kuntzsch say they are taking action to reduce the fishing related threats from the Maui’s known habitat range, which runs from Maunganui Bluff in the North, to the Whanganui River mouth in the South and out to a depth of 100 meters .
“Over time we will extend the fishing exclusion out to the 100 metre depth across the Maui habitat, to remove set netting and trawling from their zone, and we will also increase the amount of monitoring on vessels.”
Sanford Ltd has the largest catching presence along the west coast of the North Island. Moana New Zealand is a significant west coast quota owner and leases their catching rights to contract fishers.
Volker Kuntzsch says the companies understand that the initiatives will adversely affect independent fishers who also catch in this area. ‘Several of whom lease catching rights and have long standing business relationships with us’, Kuntzsch said.
“Some of these fishers will find themselves in very difficult situations and be financially challenged by our decision – we have been meeting with them and commit to continuing to stand alongside them if they choose to transition to more dolphin-safe methods such as long lining”.
‘We’re committed to working with all west coast fishers and groups in this initiative. We’re also looking to the Government to support this plan by finding ways to assist fishers to transition to dolphin-safe fishing methods, so the commitments we’re leading with are adopted by all fishers across the whole Maui Habitat.
Under the plan, Moana and Sanford are also putting up $500,000 to put video monitoring on all vessels and boost 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.”
The full protection plan document signed by Sanford and Moana is available here
Update as at March 2021
Our Māui dolphin commitment, which dates back to 2016, aims to ensure Māui-safe fishing in the rare dolphin’s habitat along the west coast of the North Island. All Moana trawl vessels in the Māui dolphin habitat have video cameras and electronic tracking.
We are also supporting industry and the Government in its aim of collecting more data through the Māui63 drone project, which will aid understanding of Māui dolphin’s whereabouts, prevalence, movement patterns and breeding behaviour.
Specifically, the monitoring capability of a large drone, equipped with artificial intelligence to find and track Māui dolphins, will gather data about how the dolphins use their habitat during the day and night – and throughout the year.
This data will power the science about how best to protect them from key threats. Exploring how drone technology can be utilised to reduce the residual risk of Māui dolphins coming into contact with fishing nets is central to Moana New Zealand’s and Sanford’s support of the project.
Update as of August 2021
At Moana New Zealand, we want to see biodiversity outcomes which are all-encompassing and all-inclusive. We are compliant in our fishing practices according to legal requirements stipulated by the Ministry for Primary Industries.
We want to keep dolphins safe and do no harm to dolphins. If our fishers spot a Māui dolphin, they immediately move away.
Widely publicised, Government is also investing $60 million to rollout cameras on all Aotearoa’s fishing boats. Our 12 trawlers have had cameras onboard for eight years now. We hope investment in camera technology will help the Māui dolphin population, backed by data and matauranga Māori science.
We are committed to the Māui63 drone project which has had technical difficulties and is slow to get off the ground to gather the data we need. We acknowledge the Department of Conservation’s report on Māui dolphin numbers remaining in the wild but we remain on track to continue to collect robust evidential data we need to more meaningfully understand breeding patterns and behaviours long-term.
We are not trying to tell the rest of the industry what to do, but we hope our actions can help reduce the risk of further depletion in the Māui dolphin habitat. We are optimistic given the closely related Hector’s dolphin population is not critically endangered in its natural habitat in the South Island.
For more information, head to: https://www.maui63.org/