Dr. Barbara Maas - Voice for the last 50 Maui dolphins

NABU International’s Head of International Species Conservation Dr. Barbara Maas will be our special guest. Dr. Maas and world's marine mammal scientists urge immediate action. Under current protection levels, Maui’s dolphins will become practically extinct by 2030 as a result of fishing.

In a letter to New Zealand’s Prime Minister, the Society for Marine Mammalogy (SMM) urges the government to ban gillnets and trawling in Maui’s dolphin habitat immediately to avoid their extinction. With a membership of some 2,000 scientists from 60 countries, the SMM is the world's largest professional body dedicated to research on marine mammals and the ecosystems that support them. The letter highlights that fishing nets alone kill about nine percent of an estimated population of 55 individuals over one year of age, which will render Maui’s dolphins virtually extinct in less than 20 years.

Barbara took up the position as Head of International Species Conservation for NABU International in 2009. Her current conservation work includes snow leopards in Kyrgyzstan, tigers in India, elephants in Africa, lions in Tanzania’s Serengeti, and Hector’s & Maui’s dolphins in New Zealand.

She was appointed Secretary for the International Buddhist Confederation’s (IBC) Standing Committee on Environment and Conservation in 2013.

On October 30th Dr Barbara Maas and Maui's dolphin expert Dr Liz Slooten from the New Zealand's University of Otago hand over petitions signed by 150,000 concerned people from around the world.

Extinction is forever, once they are gone the species cannot be brought back.

Please sign the petition: http://www.change.org/p/save-maui-s-dolphins-from-extinction