URGENT CALL TO ACTION

Remove human threats from the Maui’s dolphin habitat. Give the last 55 a chance.
Get the nets out, and say no to new oil and gas extraction!!!

Maui's dolphins are on the verge of extinction- don't let it happen.
Stand up to the National Party, who want to allow oil exploration/ drilling off the West Coast in the Maui's dolphins Marine Mammal Sanctuary in addition to the existing and significant threats from gill net entrapment.

Maui's Dolphins Defenders Rally
Sunday, 13 July 2014
Meet: Kumeu Arts Centre, 300 Main Rd
Behind the Kumeu Library
Time: 10 am for a 10.30 start
What: March to local MP John Key's electoral office
supported by: Maui's & Hector's Dolphins Defenders NZ!

Our unique, endemic, gorgeous wee dolphins are under threat!
Join us to celebrate our unique dolphins
AND pressure John Key to save them!

Assemble at Kumeu Arts Centre, slow walk to PM John Key's electoral office - 365 Main Road, Kumeu at 10.30am.

Group page https://www.facebook.com/groups/1518731841601174/
www.facebook.com/events/650786461678794/?source=1

www.thelast55.org.nz

Maui's & Hectors Dolphins Education Action
http://nzdolphins.wix.com/nzdolphins

www.facebook.com/groups/1518731841601174/

What can you do? Become a Maui's Dolphin Defenders- join at

http://nzdolphins.wix.com/nzdolphins
FB page: www.facebook.com/groups/1518731841601174/
World Wildlife Fund Aotearoa/ NZ
www.thelast55.org.nz
Send a letter to Minister "for" Conservation Nick Smith
email: nick.smith@national.org.nz
Minister of Energy Simon Bridges email: s.bridges@ministers.govt.nz
Minister for Primary Industries (MPI) Nathan Guy email: nathan.guy@national.org.nz
and cc in John Key email: john.key@national.org.nz

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The International Whaling Commission (IWC) recently published a report that concludes the situation for New Zealand's highly endangered Maui's dolphin is dire, and that the Government's "current management situation falls short of that required to reverse the Maui's decline."
The Commission calls on the Government to "take immediate management actions that will eliminate bycatch of Maui's" and to "commit to specific population increase targets and timelines."
"The International Whaling Commission report is hugely embarrassing for the Government. It highlights the significant failure of National's response to protecting the Maui's dolphin," said Zelka Grammer, coordinator Northland Maui's Dolphin Defenders.
"At the very time that the National Party should be doing MORE to protect them,
Minister Simon Bridges has opened up more than 3000 square kilometres of a marine mammal sanctuary for oil and gas drilling, home to the critically endangered Maui's dolphins."
This unethical action comes less than a week after the International Whaling Commission urged our Government to do more to save the species.
The current Government's policies allow deadly fishing methods to be used in Maui's dolphin habitats.
For those of you who don't want to see Maui's dolphins driven to extinction (by National Party supported oil drilling in the Maui's marine sanctuary) please join other Northland Maui's Dolphin Defenders and come along to a rally outside John Key's electoral office in West Auckland- see you there !
Copy of the Open Letter (to be presented to the PM) below at ****

When and where: Sunday, July 13
10:00am - 11:00am

Kumeu Arts Centre, 300 Main Rd, Kumeu, behind the Kumeu Library

Assemble at Kumeu Arts Centre, slow walk to PM John Key's electoral office - 365 Main Road, Kumeu at 10.30am. Group pagehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/1518731841601174/

Sunday, July 13
at 10:00am - 11:00am
•
Kumeu Arts Centre, 300 Main Rd, Kumeu, behind the Kumeu Library
Assemble at Kumeu Arts Centre, slow walk to PM John Key's electoral office - 365 Main Road, Kumeu at 10.30am.

Northland branch MAUI'S AND HECTOR'S DOLPHINS DEFENDERS NZ
Group page www.facebook.com/groups/1518731841601174/

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OPEN LETTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER, MINISTERS SMITH (CONSERVATION), BRIDGES (ENERGY) AND GUY (PRIMARY INDUSTRIES)

Dear Sirs,
Concerned citizens of New Zealand and the World call on your Government to remove human threats from Maui’s dolphins’ habitat.
Maui’s dolphins are the world’s rarest, smallest and loveliest of all marine dolphins and are found only in New Zealand’s inshore waters. Maui’s are down to around the last 55 individuals. This is a tragic and negative reflection on New Zealand, as shown by the IWC’s repeated calls for the Government to do more to protect the sub-species.
Maui’s (and Hector’s) Dolphins remain at risk of trawl entrapment in most of their habitat –anywhere beyond 2nm from shore. There are few observers on the inshore fishing fleet to monitor dolphin loss as bycatch.
To make matters worse, your Government has reintroduced threats to the dolphins inside the Manukau Harbour in the form of ring netting.
The Government’s Threat Management Plan acknowledges that Maui’s dolphins can sustain no more than one human induced death in 10-23 years.
To impose the additional threats to these dolphins that oil and gas drilling poses, in effects such as seismic impacts, boat strike, displacement and prey-species loss, is a step way too far for such an imperilled and beautiful population.
Mineral extraction even in the periphery of the dolphin habitat poses untenable risks to both Maui’s and Hector’s dolphins in the ‘dolphin corridor’ between the North and South Islands which is essential to support population growth and genetic diversity in the Maui’s population.
Please recognise how important this issue is to New Zealanders across the political spectrum, and to observers around the world, including overseas consumers of New Zealand fish.
Remove human threats from the Maui’s dolphin habitat. Give the last 55 a chance. Get the nets out, and say no to new oil and gas extraction.
Concerned citizens of New Zealand and the World

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