Skip to content

WDC’s new rugby partnership helps tackle key threats to whales and dolphins

Whaling commission voices grave concern over Maui’s dolphin future

Scientists from the International Whaling Commission have voiced their “grave concern” for the endangered Maui’s dolphin, a sub-species of the New Zealand dolphin. Estimates for the number of remaing dolphins range from 43 to 69 with one researcher, Dr. Liz Slooten, predicting there could be just a few individuals left within a couple of decades.…

Read More

New Zealanders Want to Pay More Tax

A report published this week shows a large majority of New Zealanders are prepared to pay a ‘Dolphin Tax’ to stop New Zealand dolphins dying in fishing nets. The report was commissioned by Whale and Dolphin Conservation. It was presented in summary form to the Biennial meeting of the Marine Mammal Society which was held…

Read More

How not to save a species!

Less than a week after the International Whaling Commission (IWC) urged the Government of New Zealand to do more to save the critically endangered Maui’s dolphin there has been a dramatic turn of events.  Instead of establishing more protective measures to save this endemic species, the NZ Government have in fact opened up a potential…

Read More

Cynical token gesture to protect North Island New Zealand dolphin

New Zealand Minister for Conservation Dr Nick Smith recently announced a 350km2 extension to the set netting ban in the North Taranaki Bight. Any extension to the tiny protected area for the NZ Dolphin is welcome but this announcement seems designed to delay and possibly even avoid the major extension to protection measures required to…

Read More