06/06/2026
🐬 Unitary councils - large or small - must do all the work of both district and regional councils. This includes adopting and implementing a coastal environment plan - and, unfortunately, Canterbury's is over a decade out of date.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/ldr/589867/ecan-says-coastal-protection-a-priority-despite-planning-handbrake
Any future in which Selwyn is governed by a unitary authority (standalone or amalgamated) will include the requirement to take up this responsibility - along with resource consents, public transport, biosecurity and more.
Currently the whole region contributes to this work via ECan rates, however we do not yet have clear data on how much of that regional revenue is spent in which districts.. or at sea.
Between 2005 (the adoption of the most recent Canterbury Regional Coastal Environment Plan) and April 2026, the Department of Conservation (DOC) incident database for Hector’s dolphin records 141 deaths in Canterbury.
At least 46 were confirmed to have been caused by fishing gear, while more than half of all recovered dolphins could not be assigned a definitive cause of death.
Banks Peninsula, Pegasus Bay, Kaikōura and the wider Canterbury Bight were the principal mortality hotspots, and 2024 recorded the highest annual death toll in the dataset.
Commercial trawl bycatch (25), Commercial set net bycatch (18), Recreational set net bycatch (3), Boat strike (2),
Disease/natural causes (8), Other known causes (4),
and undetermined (81).
What this means, is that 46 deaths (33%) were confirmed fishing-related (trawl or set net), and 81 deaths (57%) were recorded as unknown or undetermined.
A significant proportion of unknown cases involved decomposed carcasses where a definitive cause could not be established.
We know that fisheries-related mortality is likely to be underestimated, and not every bycaught dolphin is recovered - often discarded at sea.
Fishing mortality trends were dominated by:
1. Commercial trawl gear – (25 dolphins).
2. Commercial set nets – (18 dolphins).
3. Recreational set nets – (3 dolphins).
This is notable because public discussion often focuses on set nets, yet the Canterbury records show trawl bycatch has also been a major source of confirmed mortality.
The largest clusters of Canterbury deaths occurred around:
Banks Peninsula, Pegasus Bay, Kaikōura, Canterbury Bight, Waimakariri, Ashley and Rakaia river-mouth areas, and Christchurch beaches including Spencer Park, New Brighton and Sumner.
The annual totals show a marked increase in recent years: 2022: 10 deaths, 2023: 10 deaths, 2024: 21 deaths (highest in the record), 2025: 4 deaths, and 2026 (to April): 2 deaths.
The spike in recorded deaths at 2024, coincides with improved monitoring and reporting, including electronic monitoring coverage of parts of the fishing fleet.
In summary, between 2005 and April 2026, DOC’s incident database records at least 46 confirmed fishing gear related Hector’s dolphin deaths, while more than half of all recovered dolphins could not be assigned a definitive cause of death. Banks Peninsula, Pegasus Bay, Kaikōura and the wider Canterbury Bight were the principal mortality hotspots, and 2024 recorded the highest annual death toll in the dataset.
I’ll be interested to see where the numbers sit for the full 2025/26 fishing year.
