March 25, 2024
Dolphin kaitiaki plans held up
Ngāi Tahu’s Ngāti Wheke hapu is standing stong in the face of criticism over marine mammal protection in Te Whakaraupō Lyttleton Harbour.
Saturday’s SailGP racing was cancelled after a Hector’s dolphin was spotted on the course, sparking SailGP chief executive SIr Russell Coutts to attack the environmental protection rules his company signed off on.
Hapu spokesperson Yvette Couch-Lewis says the dolphins breed in the harbour at this time of year and the event was only permitted at short notice once the plan was agreed to.
“And we have worked really hard and diigently to enable SailGP to come back at short notice. All those volunteers made that marine mammal plan work and protected our dolphins. Yes, it was one dolphin,. the loss of one dolphin in our harbour is one too many,” she says.
Ms Couch-Lewis says the decision to scrap Saturday’s racing was made by an independent person in the control room, not by her as the mana whenua representative.
New Zealand won Sunday’s racing, putting it ahead for the series.