New Zealand's coastline is known for both its outstanding scenery
and its unique wildlife and fauna. What is less well known is
the environmental degradation that is taking place along New Zealand's
shores. On a daily basis, it and other nations are doing little
to stop the indiscriminate slaughter of wildlife and its associated
habitat along the coastline.
Among the victims of this environmental plight are the Hector's
dolphins. Native to New Zealand, Hector's are the smallest dolphins
in the world. These playful creatures are also among the rarest,
having declined in numbers to just 3,000 to 4,000.
The Hector's dolphin has come to represent New Zealand's most
recent effort to protect all coastal wildlife. A national campaignwas
mounted by Earthtrust New Zealand in 1992-3, with assistance from
New Zealand organization Down To Earth, to save New Zealand's
coastal environment and highlight the plight of the dolphins.
A key element of the campaign was a New Zealand-designed and built
microlight plane. The aircraft was fitted with pontoons and could
land on water, snow or grass. Nicknamed "The Hector Protector,"
it could fly for three hours at speeds up to 100 km/h, making
it perfectly suited for its mission: an 18-month video survey
of the New Zealand coastline, filming above and below water.
The plane was not only to be used to count coastal mammal populations
(with particular emphasis on the threatened Hector's dolphins),
it was also designed to provide video documentation of the state
of marine life along New Zealand's coast. Like many of Earthtrust's
other activities, this undertaking combined research with active
campaigning. In terms of campaigning, it was Earthtrust's intent
to incorporate school visits and educational outreach programs
to inform the public about the damage being done in their own
neighborhoods.
The research component included a national count of Hector's dolphins
which will attempt to indicate the effectiveness of protective
measures already in place, measure mortality rates through net
entrapment and determine the extent and impact of human activities
on these and other dolphins.
Unfortunately, after only a few test flights, the Hector Protector
was sabotaged by unknown parties, and its promise was never fully
realized.
