Browsing: Maui Dolphins

Today, WWF-New Zealand officially launched the Māui Dolphin Challenge, a fundraising campaign to save one of New Zealand’s most endangered and beloved animals. The campaign challenges New Zealanders to fundraise by pledging to do something involving the number 63. Whether it’s walking 63 kilometres or picking up 63 kilograms of rubbish, people across the country are already signing up to take part in creative fundraising challenges.

Māui’s dolphin, a subspecies of Hector’s dolphin found off the west coast of the North Island, is the rarest marine dolphin and has approximately just 63 individuals remaining in the wild. This critically endangered dolphin needs all the help it can get to recover from fisheries bycatch.

Nikki Fothergill is a Project Jonah Marine Mammal Medic who is studying for a Diploma in Marine Studies at the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic in Tauranga. For her second-year project she surveyed the New Zealand public to measure the level of awareness of Māui dolphins and their plight.