Click photo to enlarge
Moko the dolphin back at Waikanae Beach playing bodyboard
tag with Jessie Burke and a few of her friends in this
December 2008 file photo. Credit:NZPA / Gisborne Herald
Reports suggesting Moko the dolphin is angry, a sexual
predator and a potential killer are a huge exaggeration of the
truth, an environmentalist says.
The playful bottlenose dolphin was said to be displaying
intimidating behaviour, leaving people battered and bruised,
and had trapped at least six swimmers out at sea since he
made Gisborne his base.
But Hawke's Bay environmentalist Dave Head, who has spent a
lot of time with Moko over the past three years, said the
reports were nonsense.
"Some websites are now starting to say he is a sexual
predator. So how come no one has seen him with his willy
exposed? No one."
Mr Head repeated his call for a guardian to be appointed to
protect the mammal, particularly as thousands of visitors
swell Gisborne's population during summer.
An extensive study into solitary dolphins by Dr Lissa Goodwin
and Margaux Dodds of the Marine Connection, an international
dolphin and whale protection agency, argued that in a few
cases, the need to protect individual dolphins has resulted
in the appointment of exclusive guardians, whose task it was
to look after the wellbeing of the dolphin, managing
interactions and ensuring that distress and/or disturbance to
the individual was minimised.
For Moko's protection, the Department of Conservation has
said it will look at bombarding the thousands of visitors
with information about the dos and don'ts of swimming with
Moko.
The department also said it would hire an "advocate" who
would patrol the beaches informing people about Moko.
