Call for set net action

Forest and Bird, Issue 279, 1 February 1996, Page 13

Call for set net action

FOREST AND BIRD’S North Canterbury branch and other conservation groups presented Lyttelton Labour MP Ruth Dyson with a petition late last year to pass on to Conservation Minister, Denis Marshall and Fisheries Minister, Doug Kidd. The 6,47 1-signature petition called for a ban on the use of set nets in coastal waters. "Ten dead Hector’s dolphins were found on Canterbury beaches last summer," said Forest and Bird’s regional field officer Eugenie Sage. "At least seven were either entangled in set nets or had tell-tale marks on their snouts and nick marks on their fins and flippers indicating they had drowned in a set net. An average of three Hector’s dolphin deaths from commercial nets are reported annually but under-reporting is a consistent feature so the actual death rate is likely to be higher Vv

than this." Hector’s dolphin are the world’s smallest and possibly rarest marine dolphin with a population estimated at under 4,000. They occur only in New Zealand’s inshore waters and are concentrated around Banks Peninsula, the Southland coast and on the West Coast. A set net ban would protect the dolphin, allow depleted coastal fish populations, especially reef species, to recover and would lead to a healthier marine ecosystem.