The election of the new National-NZ First-ACT coalition in October 2023 caused a collective shudder among environmentalists. With their promises to bring back oil and gas drilling, to extract, dig and exploit nature, and to disregard 'Freddy' the endangered frog should he get in the way, it's been described as a war on nature. Minister of Oceans and Fisheries, Shane Jones, has long links with the fishing industry who have also funded his election campaigns.
We don't have much faith they'll do what's right for Māui and Hector's dolphins. Apparently Shane Jones wanted to ditch the onboard camera monitoring system but couldn't get it into the coalition agreement. Just as well, because that camera programme is revealing what was hidden in the past - trawling killing huge numbers of dolphins. That's 11 since September alone, including a mother and her suckling calf killed in a trawl net together in Pegasus Bay.
Despite our cynicism and despair at the new Government, we sent Jones and the Conservation Minister Tama Potaka, a Briefing Paper on matters of urgency related to Māui and Hector's. You can read that here.