EcoWorldly

A donation of three tons of grapes has been converted, via wine, into funds for the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) project to save endangered dolphins endemic to New Zealand.

A Hector’s Dolphin showing the characteristic round dorsal fin.

The Wine

It started with Gemma McGrath who had moved from a job on Whale Watch boats to a barmaid in the small Otago village of Bannockburn which is about as far away from the sea as one can get in New Zealand.

Missing the dolphins and concerned by the steady decrease in their numbers, she spoke of them so passionately and persistently that she eventually got a farmer in the area to donate 3 tons of Pinot Gris grapes.

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Next she managed to convince a winemaker and a packaging company to produce and pack the wine. The winemaking was turned into a party with locals picking and working in the vineyards and winery.

While the wine fermented she convinced others to donate bottles, caps, labels and boxes until the bottled and packaged wine, “Message in a Bottle” Pinot Gris 2009, had been made without cost.

This means is that all the income from the wine, which is being sold by Olssens Vineyards, will be available to WWF for use in their campaign to save the endangered Hector’s and Maui’s dolphins.

The Maui’s and Hector’s dolphins

The Maui’s dolphin are only found on the West Coast of New Zealand’s North Island and are critically endangered according to the IUCN Red Data Book. In fact as of 2008 there were only 110 in the wild.

The Maui’s is a subspecies of the Hector’s dolphin of which there are significantly more. A recent survey found around 7,000 Hector’s dolphins in two populations to the West and east of New Zealand’s South Island.

The Hector’s dolphin faces serious pressures from human activities because of its limited area of distribution. Entanglement in gill nets (both commercial and amateur) is the major problem with trawl fisheries also having an effect.

They are also harmed by boat strikes, pollution and coastal developments which degrade their habitat, and future threats may arise from climate change, overfishing and aquaculture.

A risk analysis has shown that even with the current protected areas the future of these dolphins is not sustainable. Lobbying has succeeded in government moving to extend the areas in which certain types of fishing is banned but the fishing industry is contesting this in court.

Real Impact

The work of WWF in defining, encouraging and supporting continued attention to the problem is critical to the survival of the dolphins. This makes the message in the bottle project more than just a nice story but rather a real contribution to the future of these unique and endangered dolphins.

Image by JShook on Wikimedia under a under a Creative Commons license.

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