Yesterday, Otago Polytechnic Dunedin School of Art student Jemma Edenborough put her hand-made sculptures on the site of the old Star Fountain and left them there to melt.
She sculpted 54 Māui dolphins as that was how many were left when the population was last counted in 2021, she said.
Miss Edenborough said in theory there were still 54, but there had been at least five confirmed deaths since then.
"Basically, they are going to go extinct, relatively soon — the piece is about mourning something before it’s gone.
"There’s little we can do about it — it’s rather depressing."
The dolphins were dying from a mix of accidentally getting caught in fishing nets and from toxoplasmosis, she said.
"It’s not really a cheerful piece of artwork, but hopefully it’s important enough to justify it being so sad."
She decided to lay her Māui dolphins on the site of the old Star Fountain because, like the dolphins, it had only been around for 30 years.
"Similarly, these guys have only had their own distinct classification separate from the Hectors dolphins since 2006 — if we lose them around 2036, we would have also only had them for about 30 years."
The dolphins were made using a mould Miss Edenborough carved from macrocarpa.
She then made six plastic moulds to freeze water in the shape of the Māui dolphins.
It took her about two weeks to freeze them and ice-cream store Gelato Junkie let her store them in its freezer.
