Ensuring dolphins experience positive welfare requires they have healthy ecosystems where they can swim, rest, play, find food, breed, rear offspring, and socialise.

SPCA opposes human activities that result in the injuries or deaths of dolphins. SPCA advocates for increased protection of dolphin welfare and recovery of the species to non-threatened status.

Dolphins are at risk of injury and death from entanglement with fishing nets. Hector’s and Māui dolphins are at increased risk of entanglements due to their habitats so close to shore. SPCA advocates that the government must take more practical action that aims for fisheries activities to result in zero mortality of dolphins. This could be achieved by changes to existing practices such as ending the use of bulk harvest fishing methods such as trawling and set nets in dolphin habitat. SPCA advocates for a restriction on the use of all commercial and private set and trawl nets in water depths of 100 metres or less in the natural range of both Hector’s and Māui dolphins.

SPCA advocates for increased accountability of fisheries activities that impact dolphins, particularly around breeding populations.

Deaths resulting from entanglements with fishing nets cause suffering to the individual dolphin, reliant offspring, and negatively impact the population. The death of a dolphin mother impacts dependent offspring who may experience starvation and face increased risk of predation.

SPCA opposes methods of fishing that will lead to the drowning of dolphins.

SPCA advocates for more research and monitoring of the impacts of commercial fishing nets to better understand unobserved deaths (cryptic mortality) of dolphins that may escape nets and subsequently die. The lack of quality data and uncertainty of current population numbers have been an ongoing concern in developing management plans to mitigate the human-based pressures on Hector’s and Māui dolphins.

SPCA is concerned about the impacts of toxoplasmosis on Hector’s and Māui dolphins.

SPCA advocates for more research into understanding and reducing the risks of toxoplasmosis transmission to prevent negative impacts on Hector’s and Māui dolphins.