Last week our crew patrolled from Manukau Heads to Port Waikato and unfortunately not a single Maui was spotted. In February this year we were stoked to observe five to six of the world’s rare marine dolphin. This time we covered most of their small protected 4nm (7.4km) trawl zone and searched for over six hours. No dolphins.
Although it was disappointing not to see any Maui is more concerning they may have moved out of their protected area during autumn/winter. This also confirms research showing seasonal movement offshore for both Maui and Pahu during the cooler months. It also highlights how inadequate our current protected areas are and in particular for this very rare and critically endangered Maui sub population.
So excuse the lack of Maui pictures this time. But here’s some sea, sky and t shirts photos instead!
