University of Otago Associate Prof Nicola Wheen, of the Otago faculty of law gave the last in a series of public talks linked to Otago Animal Law Week, at 12.30pm yesterday.
Her talk was entitled "Can the case of the Vaquita help Maui Dolphins?" and arose from a federal court victory in July by US conservationists trying to save the vaquita porpoise, a nearly extinct species in the Gulf of Mexico.
Maui’s dolphins are found mainly on the west coast of the North Island, and it is believed only about 45 of the rare dolphins survive.
On July 26, Judge Gary Katzman, of the US Court of International Trade, issued a temporary injunction, ordering the US to stop accepting some imported seafood from Mexico if it was caught using gill nets.
The court order forbids the US from accepting imports from commercial fisheries that use gill nets in the northern part of the Gulf of California, which is home to the vaquita porpoise.
It is believed there are only 15 of the small but distinctive vaquita porpoises in existence.
Prof Wheen said she was "encouraged" by the issuing of the temporary injunction, which highlighted the strength of the underlying United States legislation to protect endangered marine mammal species, and provisions for targeted fish import bans to protect them.
There were still challenges to be faced before a possible partial fish export ban could be sought in the US Court of International Trade, but she now felt "a little bit more hope" that this remedy could be sought to protect the Maui’s dolphin.
Bringing such a case would require support from a major US-based or international conservation organisation, Prof Wheen said.
There would be some financial cost in better protecting Maui’s dolphins from recreational gill netting and commercial fishing operations, but relatively simple actions could be taken by the New Zealand Government to better protect the dolphins.
Such moves would also protect New Zealand’s clean green image from possibly adverse international publicity, given that the plights of the vaquita porpoise and Maui’s dolphins were well known internationally, Prof Wheen said in an interview.