Dr Liz Slooten and Dr Steve Dawson help protect Hector's and Maui's.
Together with their team of Masters and PhD students, they conduct research to find out more about Maui’s and Hector’s dolphins.
Their research includes surveys of the population size and distribution of the dolphins, and photographic identification studies to estimate things such as survival and reproductive rates, and movements. Acoustic data loggers are used to find out how much time the dolphins spend inside harbours in North and South Island waters. Population viability analysis has been used to assess whether populations are increasing or declining.
Both Liz and Steve are deeply committed to the dolphins’ long-term recovery. While their role with the university involves teaching, supervising students and administration, they spend as much time as possible in the field, conducting valuable research and analysis that is helping to build our knowledge and understanding of these animals.
For Liz, it is important the information is used to inform conservation management decisions. ‘As a marine conservation biologist, I’m strongly committed to gathering information that will help us to better protect and understand the environment.’
Steve shares the concern. His ambition is to reduce our impacts on the dolphins to near zero. ‘Conservation action is about changing people’s behaviour. In my view, scientists need to take a greater role in translating the science into action. They understand the animals best, and are least affected by vested interests.’
But, he says, getting into conservation management can be frustrating. As well as good scientific and practical skills, people need confidence and dedication that borders on stubbornness.
Says Liz: ‘As a biologist you tend to think that your work is done when you’ve finished the lengthy process of gathering and publishing the data that reveal a serious conservation problem. But that’s often only the start of it – what seems like a number one priority in terms of conservation isn’t necessarily a number one priority for decision makers.
‘You have to make sure that the information gets to the right people, they absorb it, understand it, but also that they act on it. That can be a huge task.’ Liz and Steve say that the future of Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins hangs in the balance.
‘If we act now to reduce fisheries mortality to zero, our analyses show that they stand a reasonable chance of recovering to half of their original numbers by 2050, or soon after. If protection measures are further delayed or compromised, the most likely outcome is continued population decline,’ Liz says.
Solving this problem is a challenge, but it’s also a potential win-win situation. ‘Changing to more selective, sustainable fishing methods would benefit not only Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins, yellow-eyed penguins, little blue penguins, shags and other seabirds, but also fish stocks,’ she says. ‘In the long run that can only be good news for the fishing industry – if they are truly committed to a sustainable future.’
Their research includes surveys of the population size and distribution of the dolphins, and photographic identification studies to estimate things such as survival and reproductive rates, and movements. Acoustic data loggers are used to find out how much time the dolphins spend inside harbours in North and South Island waters. Population viability analysis has been used to assess whether populations are increasing or declining.
Both Liz and Steve are deeply committed to the dolphins’ long-term recovery. While their role with the university involves teaching, supervising students and administration, they spend as much time as possible in the field, conducting valuable research and analysis that is helping to build our knowledge and understanding of these animals.
For Liz, it is important the information is used to inform conservation management decisions. ‘As a marine conservation biologist, I’m strongly committed to gathering information that will help us to better protect and understand the environment.’
Steve shares the concern. His ambition is to reduce our impacts on the dolphins to near zero. ‘Conservation action is about changing people’s behaviour. In my view, scientists need to take a greater role in translating the science into action. They understand the animals best, and are least affected by vested interests.’
But, he says, getting into conservation management can be frustrating. As well as good scientific and practical skills, people need confidence and dedication that borders on stubbornness.
Says Liz: ‘As a biologist you tend to think that your work is done when you’ve finished the lengthy process of gathering and publishing the data that reveal a serious conservation problem. But that’s often only the start of it – what seems like a number one priority in terms of conservation isn’t necessarily a number one priority for decision makers.
‘You have to make sure that the information gets to the right people, they absorb it, understand it, but also that they act on it. That can be a huge task.’ Liz and Steve say that the future of Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins hangs in the balance.
‘If we act now to reduce fisheries mortality to zero, our analyses show that they stand a reasonable chance of recovering to half of their original numbers by 2050, or soon after. If protection measures are further delayed or compromised, the most likely outcome is continued population decline,’ Liz says.
Solving this problem is a challenge, but it’s also a potential win-win situation. ‘Changing to more selective, sustainable fishing methods would benefit not only Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins, yellow-eyed penguins, little blue penguins, shags and other seabirds, but also fish stocks,’ she says. ‘In the long run that can only be good news for the fishing industry – if they are truly committed to a sustainable future.’
