Greenpeace is calling the Government\u2019s latest proposal to save M\u0101ui and Hector\u2019s dolphins a \u201cpathway to extinction for the world\u2019s rarest dolphin species\u201d.<\/p>\n
Proposals for the critically endangered M\u0101ui and endangered Hector\u2019s dolphin have been released by the Government this morning, following months of delays.<\/p>\n
But Greenpeace senior campaigner Steve Abel says the options proposed do not go far enough.<\/p>\n
\u201cBoth the United Nations and the Ministry for the Environment confirm that New Zealand is in an ecological crisis, with more native species at risk of extinction than any other country,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re living through the world\u2019s sixth mass extinction. M\u0101ui and Hector\u2019s are at the top of the threatened lists. It\u2019s thirty seconds to midnight for these creatures yet the Government is still offering half measures to protect them, that are certain to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the Government has finally offered one option for strong protections for M\u0101ui, the lack of ambition for Hector\u2019s is frankly depressing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must ban all gill netting and trawling from M\u0101ui habitat out to 100 metres immediately, but why aren\u2019t the same protections being offered for Hector\u2019s dolphins? \u00a0We know they are dying by the dozen in fishing nets but there is no equivalent proposal to stop those methods in Hector\u2019s habitat.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s as if the Government is waiting until Hector\u2019s dolphins plummet into nationally critical territory like M\u0101ui before taking action. It amounts to willfully driving a species to the brink of extinction.<\/p>\n
\u201cGlobally, one million species are at risk of extinction. With these dolphins we know the greatest threat to them and we have for years – it\u2019s human fishing methods. Are we really going to sit back and watch as our native dolphins – the smallest and rarest in the world – go extinct, just to keep the fishing industry happy?\u201d<\/p>\n
ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Greenpeace is calling the Government\u2019s latest proposal to save M\u0101ui and Hector\u2019s dolphins a \u201cpathway to extinction for the world\u2019s rarest dolphin species\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":5544,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[25,41],"p4-page-type":[7],"class_list":["post-5543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-oceans","tag-biodiversity","p4-page-type-press-release"],"yoast_head":"\n