My Letter

At Pukekohe Intermediate School two year 7 classes (including mine) are studying Maui’s Dolphin and have found that they are critically endangered.

Maui’s are the smallest and rarest dolphin in the world. Every year, approximately 250 dolphins die from polluted waters, nylon fishing nets and boats that speed around the dolphin’s habitat.

Maui’s are very slow breeders. They only have 1-3 dolphin’s in their 20 year lifetime, so the population does not grow very fast. We only have around 30 years to save the Maui’s dolphin before they become extinct. There are only 111 dolphins left.

The main reason the population is declining is because the Government is not doing anything about the fishing nets. Maui’s are attracted to the fishing nets and when they get stuck the dolphins cannot swim backwards. Some ideas my class and I have thought of are put up signs around the beaches where the dolphins live, saying no fishing nets or you will have to pay the fine, go slow in your boat around the habitat and use eco-friendly re-usable bags instead of plastic bags.

A lady called Victoria from WWF came into our class, to talk about how we can make a difference. She told us some locals from Auckland found a dead pilot whale beached and when some scientists cut it open, they found 500 plastic bags that it had eaten from in the water.

I would hate to see something like that happen to the Maui’s.

P.S. Congratulations on becoming Prime Minister.