Many of us are familiar with the plight of the Vaquita population, but are you familiar with the Hector’s dolphin?

Endemic to New Zealand, it’s the rarest dolphin in the world, and it’s lost more than 75% of its population.

The species is in great danger at the hands of the fishing industry—as bycatch is plunging the species towards extinction.

The most alarming factor is that Hector’s dolphins are LEGALLY allowed to be caught as bycatch, but it’s ILLEGAL to not report them.

Not surprisingly, this has lad to fishermen hiding evidence of their fishing practices so consumers won’t judge their products.

Last year, New Zealand’s government enforced the implementation of video cameras on all fishing vessels as a means of documenting what’s really going on onboard.

According to Sea Shepherd’s research, the amount of entanglements has been rising, and the amount of reported dolphins found dead on the beach and floating at sea has diminished, which strongly suggests that before the cameras were installed, the dolphins were being thrown overboard instead of being reported.

Professor Emeritus Liz Slooten, University of Otago, comments: “Despite the very small number of fishing boats with cameras so far, the results have been alarming. So far 6 Hector’s dolphin deaths in fishing nets were detected In just over 3 months (20 September 2023 – 3 January 2024) off the east coast of the South Island. In the same period last year only 1 dolphin was caught.”

The government hasn’t yet done anything about this issue, but now we have confidence that the fishing industry is responsible for the decline of the species.

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Vaquita footage vai @seashepherdsscs
Video: @seaspiracy ...

Some video clips make your heart swell with love for the ocean. This is one of them. Thank you @michaelboyyd for sharing this beautiful moment with the world. ☮️🌊 ...

I wonder if this plastic ring sat on the beach for one, two, three, or maybe thirty days before a storm picked it up and drifted it out to sea…?

I wonder if people walked by and saw it, but left it behind…assuming its existence was nothing to worry about…

Sometimes, all it takes, is seeing a video like this to realize how one small action of yours could save the life of a shark like this.

The next time you go to a beach, bring a bag and help clean up any trash you see, even if it’s small.

With regard to this shark, we don’t know what will happen—if she’ll survive, or endure a painful slow death.

What we do know is she’s a female Grey Nurse Shark spotted by divers from Forster Dive Center at Seal Rocks on NSW’s mid coast on March 23rd.

No one has been able to return to the ocean due to weather conditions to try and help her.

As you can see, the plastic ring cuts deep into her skin, pinning one of her fins against her body. Videos like these are a small and tragic reminder of the impact a simple piece of plastic can have on an individuals life. 🎥 @forster_dive_centre #plasticpollution #plasticfree ...