AR-News: (UK) Satellite tags to save dolphins

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

By Kim Griggs 
In Wellington, New Zealand 

New Zealand is aiming to use satellite tagging to try to save Maui's 
dolphins, the world's most endangered marine mammal. 
 
Mock-up of dolphin with satellite tagging
New Zealand's public conservation agency, the Department of Conservation, 
(DOC), is testing the system by tagging three Hector's dolphins. 
These animals are also endangered, but are more populous at around 7,000 than 
Maui's dolphins, which number less than 150. 


If the trial of the satellite tags proves successful on the Hector's 
dolphins, then the critically endangered Maui's may also be tagged. 
This, the DOC argues, would give it sorely needed information about where 
these small cetaceans range. 
"Our efforts to save New Zealand's rarest dolphin are being hampered by what 
we don't know about them," said Rob McCallum, from the Department of 
Conservation. 
Local conservation groups are vehemently opposed to the trial. 
Netting ban 




full story:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3523337.stm 
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