| Dolphin management plan due soon
The New Zealand Government will shortly release a plan to manage the threatened hector's dolphin. Numbers of the small dolphin have plummeted from 30,000 in the 1970s to an estimated 7000.
Set nets are the biggest threat to the species as sixty percent of deaths to the animals dolphins are from these nets, drift and trawl nets are also a major threat.
 This particular dolphin species are only found around New Zealand including on the West Coast as far north as Kahurangi Point and in the Marlborough Sounds. Some measures to protect the dolphins and the sub-species maui dolphin are already in place but further measures are now needed before this species end up like the Yangtze river dolphin - extinct! It was only a year ago that scientists developed a plan to save the Yangtze river dolphin, one of the world's most endangered mammals from extinction which sadly didn’t help them. The Yangtze river dolphin was a remarkable mammal that separated from all other species over 20m years ago and this extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life.
The New Zealand Government plans to have their measures for the hector’s dolphins in place by Christmas, let’s hope it’s not too late as the loss of any species is a shocking tragedy.
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