Marine mammals
Whales and seals
Europeans and Māori plundered the ocean around New Zealand, hunting seals and whales in massive numbers. By the 1830s extinction was looming for seals, and it was becoming uneconomic to send out gangs of sealers from Australia, Britain and other countries.
Concern about plummeting seal numbers resulted in a law in 1875, which banned sealing between 1 October and 1 June. After 1894 even this open season was closed except in 1914 and 1915, when hunting was allowed with a licence.
Open seasons were again allowed in 1924 and 1926 on Campbell Island, and in 1946 in Otago, Southland and Fiordland. Protection in these cases was lifted as fishers argued that seals were taking too many fish. During the last open season in 1946, 6,187 seals were killed from June to September.
Seals and sea lions are protected under the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978. In 2003 a 12-mile marine reserve was established around the Auckland Islands to safeguard the sea lion from squid nets.
Accidental slaughter
Even though they are totally protected by law, seals and sea lions die in large numbers each year when they are caught in commercial fishing nets. Between 1988 and 2003, 7,759 seals died in hoki fisheries, and at least 2,000 New Zealand sea lions have been killed in the Auckland Islands squid fishery since 1980.
The Fishing Industry Association has produced a code of conduct to minimise seal deaths. Even so, they still occur. In 1991 the government set an upper annual limit of 65 sea lion deaths resulting from squid fishing; if this was exceeded then the fishery would be closed. In the early 2000s conservation groups were lobbying for zero sea lion deaths.
Whales
Despite its history of whale exploitation, New Zealand has led the way in modern whale protection. In 1946 it was a founding member of the International Whaling Commission, established to manage the world's whale resources. The last harpooning by a New Zealand vessel in New Zealand waters occurred off the Kaikōura coast in 1964. Having been a whaling nation for over 100 years, by the late 1970s the country was taking a strong stance against the industry.
In 1982 the commission voted for a moratorium on commercial whaling, and in 1994 established the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. This covers over 11 million square miles of ocean, including all of New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone south of 40° south. Japan does not recognise this sanctuary and continues to hunt for minke whales in the Southern Ocean.
All whales within New Zealand’s 200-nautical-mile Exclusive Economic Zone are totally protected under the Marine Mammals Act 1978.
Whale watching, 1960s style
In the early 1960s New Zealand’s navy and air force carried out population surveys of sperm whales, and spotted them so that whalers could harpoon them. For the same purpose, the government also employed whale lookouts – pilots and navigators of the National Airways Authority, lighthouse keepers, coastal and trans-Tasman ships, and weather-station personnel on Campbell Island and the Kermadecs.
Dolphins
All dolphins are also totally protected in New Zealand waters by the 1978 act. Most species are maintaining their numbers, but others need further protection. Some estimates put the Māui’s dolphin population at fewer than 100; others calculate it at about 150. In 2002 the minister of conservation placed a ban on set-netting between Kaipara Harbour and Mōkau to protect this dolphin, which lives only along the western coast of the North Island. Hector’s dolphins, which are found off the South Island, have a larger population (an estimated 3,000–4,000 in 2005). This species is protected by a ban on set nets around Banks Peninsula.
Other protected species
Under the Wildlife Act 1953 and the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978, certain other marine species are protected irrespective of where they are found. All marine reptiles (including turtles and sea snakes), black coral and red coral are fully protected. In these cases protection is not only for the living creature, but any part of it.
