Source: Radio New Zealand
The camera on-board FV Emma Jane recorded images of a net being cut and a dead Hector’s dolphin sinking to the sea floor. RNZ / Alison Ballance
A small fine meted out to an Otago fisher, who killed a Hector’s dolphin then lied to officials, underscores the failure to protect endangered species, a conservation group says.
Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders uncovered the death of the dolphin – one of only about 40 left in the area – and fought through the courts to obtain the details.
Founder Christine Rose said the case laid bare a toothless system that failed to act as a deterrent to the fishing industry and also highlighted the vulnerability of relying on the industry to self-report bycatch.
The Moeraki fisher, who RNZ has chosen not to identify, was already before the court for illegal fishing when the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) discovered he had killed a Hector’s dolphin while set-netting off Otago’s coast in February last year.
The camera on-board FV Emma Jane recorded images of the net being cut and the dead dolphin sinking to the sea floor.
Neither MPI nor the Department of Conservation (DOC) brought charges over the death of the dolphin. However, MPI charged the man with failing to report the capture under the Fisheries Act.
While it is illegal to harm a protected species, commercial fishers are exempted for “accidental capture”, or bycatch.
The Ministry for Primary Industries said, although killing protected wildlife as bycatch was not an offence, it took the prosecution for failing to report the incident “due to the seriousness of the non-reporting”.
DOC said its only involvement in the case was to confirm the mammal in the camera footage was an endangered Hector’s dolphin.
Industry group Seafood New Zealand said fisheries were the most regulated and surveilled primary industry in the country and the case showed the rules were working.
Otago University emeritus professor Liz Slooten said the case proved dolphins killed by fishing gear were not always reported.
It comes as the government sought to roll back parts of the camera programme.
The current law – which had no penalty for fishing industry-related dolphin deaths – was not fit for purpose, Slooten said.
‘A dirty old shag’
After the dolphin’s death was discovered the skipper lied in his catch report, responding ‘no’ when asked if any protected species had been caught.
When fisheries officers asked about the catch he told them it was “just a dirty old shag or a seven-giller (shark)”, according to MPI’s summary of facts.
When formally interviewed he admitted to catching the dolphin claiming it was a “common dolphin”.
Another of the man’s ships, FV Triton, was caught trawling illegally days earlier near the mouth of the Ōrāri River in South Canterbury while skippered by another man.
A no trawl prohibition applied in the area from January to April to protect sea-run Chinook salmon, MPI described the fish as being at “crisis point”.
The ship’s owner said he was unaware of the no trawl areas.
He was charged with trawling inside a prohibited area.
‘Manifest injustice’
The fisher pleaded guilty to all charges last September and was fined $5000 for failing to report the dolphin’s capture, $10,000 for trawling in a prohibited area.
Both ships were automatically forfeited.
However, the man kept both ships in exchange for a fee of $14,460.
Rose said the man would be able to treat the fine and buy-back costs as the price of doing business.
“Hector’s dolphins are priceless but the court’s judgement makes dolphin lives look worthless,” she said.
Hector’s dolphins are only found in New Zealand waters and are estimated to number about 15,000, a stark decline from the 50,000 estimated in 1975.
The case showed the organisations charged with protecting threatened marine mammals were failing, Rose said.
“If this was a kiwi or a kākāpō people would be rightly outraged. But, because it’s a dolphin, we only know about it because of the persistence of groups like ours.”
Rose learned of the death after spotting a reference to unreported bycatch in a presentation from MPI.
The dolphin’s death was not initially reported on DOC’s database, though it had since been added with a note that “due to an ongoing compliance investigation, this incident was not reported publicly until January 2026”.
The court did not impose any suppression orders and ordered the release of the information to Māui and Hector’s Dolphin Defenders last month.
“When he was finally prosecuted, as we find out from the district court records, it turns out he’s got a history of breaking the law and despite the fact he’s been fishing for 40 years he pretends to not know what the rules are,” Rose said.
“The fine he gets for all of this is only $5000 and forfeiture of his boat but in the meantime he’s able to buy that boat back and can be right back out there fishing.”
MPI’s 2023-24 South Island Hector’s bycatch reduction plan annual report noted that on at least four occasions the same fishing boats killed more than one Hector’s dolphin in a 12 month period.
MPI director of science and information Simon Lawrence said when Fisheries New Zealand finds evidence of breaches of fisheries rules it took a range of actions from education to prosecution.
Prosecution decisions were made based on Crown Law guidance, he said.
DOC biodiversity system and aquatic director Kirstie Knowles said DOC became aware of the dolphin’s death in April when Fisheries New Zealand asked for confirmation the footage showed a Hector’s dolphin.
As a Fisheries investigation was already underway, DOC did not open a separate investigation under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Knowles said.
The High Court found in 2024 DOC’s approach to prosecution and investigation were unlawful and lacking.
Rose claimed DOC and MPI were failing in their duties.
“MPI are protecting the fishing industry, they’re not upholding the rules. DOC are nowhere to be seen. They should have been prosecuting this under the Marine Mammal Protection Act,” she said.
“Both these agencies that are supposed to be upholding the law and the flourishing and preservation of the marine environment and these protected species are missing in action.”
Less than a fifth of on-board footage monitored in last quarter
Before the introduction of on-board cameras, the industry reported one or zero Hector’s dolphins deaths in nets or trawls between 2014 and 2022.
But 15 deaths were reported or observed in the first year on-board cameras were rolled out.
Seafood NZ chief executive Lisa Futschek. RNZ / Kate Newton
A 2025 MPI report said about 30 percent of footage had been reviewed since 2023.
Figures for the quarter to September 2025 showed only 18 percent of footage was reviewed.
Seafood NZ chief executive Lisa Futschek said the Otago case showed the system was working.
There were clear rules on reporting, she said.
“We have a robust system. We need to work within it, and we do, and for those who don’t there are clear consequences which is what happened in this case,” Futschek said.
There were limits on the number of dolphins the fishing industry could kill in certain areas.
Those limits protected endangered species, Futschek said.
In the South Island the limit was 47.5 dolphins per year, but last year only seven were killed by the industry, Futschek said.
“So whilst even one capture is too many, we are still doing really well when it comes to making sure that particular species continues to thrive,” she said.
However, in the East Otago region the limit is two deaths per year.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand