KEY POINTS:
Certain elements of the groups we lump under the term "Greenies" certainly know how to use the media for the hearts and minds campaigns they push.
Greenpeace is a slick machine that masterminded sending press releases and photos from ships on the high seas. And Forest & Bird have certainly been trying to emulate its style of pumping out press releases and massaging numbers to suit its goal.
A recent Herald article written by Forest & Bird about the plight of the Hectors dolphin (recently renamed the Maui's dolphin) in the waters off the North Island's west coast is a classic example.
Readers were led to believe the decline of the Maui's dolphin in northern waters is the result of set nets ("60 per cent of their deaths where cause of death is known"), and that "96 per cent of respondents" between the Waikato and Northland support a marine mammal sanctuary and "98 per cent support a set net ban".
This month I received a reply from Conservation Minister Chris Carter. In response to my question "How many North Island Maui's dolphin have died as a result of entanglement in set nets?" he said two deaths were caused by entanglement, and another two caused by suspected entanglement.
His letter was accompanied by a list of more than 50 Maui's dolphin deaths going as far back as 1921, with only the last 12 having under gone necropsy [autopsy].
But the minister can only list two probable deaths as a result of entanglement over 86 years. With more than 50 carcasses found in the West Coast area, this is far from the "60 per cent of deaths - where cause of death is known" as claimed by Ms Knowles of Forest & Bird.
I also doubt the validity of a survey carried out by Forest & Bird claiming 96 per cent of people surveyed in Auckland, Waikato and Northland want to see a marine mammal sanctuary and total set net ban.
Clearly they did not survey the thousands of people who fish or have properties around the shores of the Manukau, or the hundreds who have attended public meetings in the Auckland and Awhitu area, where the opposition to such plans is extremely vocal.
Please do not get me wrong. Forest & Bird portray people who do not toe their line as uncaring dolphin murderers. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Many of the objectors are people who have fished and holidayed around the Manukau and West Coast for generations, and we all value our environment.
For five generations our family has holidayed at Orua Bay and we have set mullet nets inshore in the Manukau with no by-catch or incidents to speak of, a tradition we have now been stopped from doing because of new regulations. A legally set net has two anchors and named floats. This practice was monitored by fisheries officers on the Manukau and bach owners acted responsibly.
There has not been one case of a Maui's dolphin being caught in such a net in the northern fishery. It is more likely the two documented Maui's cases were entangled in discarded nets from people drawing them in the surf - a place dolphin like to swim.
DoC and Forest & Bird also claim 111 dolphin remain in the northern waters. The dolphin play in the surf along 400 km of coast line and roam out to sea for 10km, giving an approximate territory of well over 4000 sq km. It defies reason that observers could state with any certainty the population of 1 to 1.5m long grey/black dolphin in the Manukau and off the North Island's west coast.
Natural predation and disease on the wild west coast would be a challenging environment for such a small mammal. Last summer alone, four Maui's dolphin were found dead from apparent natural causes.
It was only a recent discovery, as a result of taxonomic research, that the North Island Hectors dolphin is genetically different from the South Island dolphin.
As property owners, fishers and general users of the Manukau Harbour and West Coast, we do not have the resources to generate press releases to match the Forest & Bird campaign. But we ask for a little more scrutiny and objectivity before your readers form a mind set based on manipulated or incorrect data.
* The writer is a property owner at Orua Bay and a member of the Orua Bay and Wattle Bay Residents and Ratepayers Association.
