With its bright yellow head plumage and a flashy band of colour arcing around and over from one eye to the other, the hoiho is immediately recognisable around parts of the east and southeast coast of the South Island.
The rare yellow-eyed penguin is native to New Zealand, its range extending to the subantarctic Auckland Islands and Campbell Islands. It is a large penguin, with a large feisty personality to match.
Despite that aggressive and independent spirit, it is one of the wildlife tragedies of the past few decades that hoiho numbers are inexorably in decline, even though great conservation efforts have been made to save the species.
The Otago Peninsula is a favoured breeding area for the penguin, and eco-tourism ventures there have allowed many visitors to see the birds on the beaches, as well as hear what rehabilitation measures are being taken to help save them.
According to the Department of Conservation, the hoiho population around the South Island and Stewart Island has dropped by 80 since 2008, from 739 breeding pairs to 143, in spite of conservation efforts. There are fewer than 100 hoiho chicks at present, and only a handful of these are expected to live long enough to breed.
The malign influence of climate change and its repercussions are just one threat to the birds. Others include introduced predators, a shifting diet, human interference on breeding and nesting sites, and set-net fishing. Ministry of Primary Industries’ figures indicate 17 hoiho were killed by fishing operations between October 2019 and June this year, primarily in set nets.
In light of such concerns, Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones has taken the rare step of banning the use of set nets around Otago Peninsula for three months. His announcement of the ban on Monday came after groups including the Yellow-eyed Penguin Trust and the Enviromental Law Initiative pushed for such action during the birds’ breeding season, which started last month.
The closure, which began last evening, is the right move on the government’s part, but there is no doubt it will make life difficult for the handful of Dunedin families involved in set-net fishing.
We have rarely welcomed action or comments from Mr Jones, who has often espoused his view that endangered frogs, moths and snails should not get in the way of mining and progress.
This time, though, he appears to have put aside his bombast and done the best thing, even if "as the self-proclaimed champion of the fisheries industry, I do not make this decision lightly".
Petty in the extreme
Something seems wrong when an overseas company can set up in New Zealand and immediately start calling the shots.
Having good neighbours is something we all value, or at least should. Sometimes it is only when we have bad neighbours we realise how important good ones are.
In Central Otago, Australian mining company Santana Minerals is circumscribing the rights of locals and recreational walkers with its move to block access to a paper road which leads to conservation land and passes through an area with 19th century gold-mine ruins.
The Central Otago District Council-owned public access route, known as the historic Shepherds Creek road, begins 25m inside the gate on to land which Santana now owns for its mining operation. Previously there was no issue with walkers crossing that ribbon to reach the paper road, but Santana has now put up a warning no-entry sign.
This involves a strip of private land not much longer than a cricket pitch. It seems an unnecessarily mean-spirited move by Santana, one which has the potential to not endear it to those in the region.
If Santana actually wants to be a good neighbour, it now has a lot of work to do.
