A dolphin expert says efforts by two fishing companies to protect the critcally endangered Maui's dolphins are too little too late.
However, Professor Liz Slooten from Otago University says at least Sanford Limited and Moana New Zealand are doing more than the government to help the mammals which are on the brink of extinction.
"That would've been brilliant 20 or 30 years ago but right now we need to pull out all the stops or we'll lose them," she told Newshub.
"What they're proposing to do is such a tiny step it's really not going to make any difference it's not going to have any benefit for the dolphins."
From October next year the fishing companies will no longer place set nets within most of the Maui habitat along the North Island's west coast. They've also vowed to stop conventional trawling by 2022.
Government restrictions only take in about half of the Maui habitat.
"We feel we need to take the risk down to zero and that's what we've embarked on," Sanford CEO Volker Kuntzsch said.
Sanford said it will only work if its vessels don't catch a single Maui's dolphin and it plans to fit cameras and tracking devices to its ships as part of a monitoring plan.
Both Greenpeace and WWF have praised the plan.
However, Professor Slooten said the two fishing firms only own five of the 15 boats that operate in the Maui's habitat.
Maui's dolphins are the rarest and smallest in the world and DOC estimates there are just 63 adult dolphins left.
Newshub.
