Possible Māui dolphin sighting off South Taranaki coast

Wednesday, 6 August 2025

A group of fishermen spotted what was believed to be a Māui dolphin off the coast of Manaia last month. (File photo)

John Corban has been fishing off the coast of Taranaki for 15 years and has never seen an endangered Māui dolphin.

But out fishing with his mate at the end of July he may have seen two.

Corban, a maintenance engineer for an oil and gas company, was fishing for snapper off the coast of Manaia in about 10 metres of water and came across a pair of animals that looked a lot like Māui dolphins.

While he regularly saw dolphins out fishing, the distinctive rounded dorsal fins of the pair caught his attention as something a bit different.

“There were just two of them circling the boat, they probably came as close as maybe 10m to the boat and then they were out as far as 50-odd metres and kept hanging around,” he said.

Corban managed to film a snippet of the two dolphins in the water, which he shared on the Ōpuanke Boat and Underwater Club social media page.

“It was a pretty cool experience. I assumed it was a Māui dolphin being that far north,” he said.

Sightings of Māui dolphins are rare. The last probable sighting recorded by the Taranaki Daily News was in 2009 when a Waitara fisherman filmed one swimming around his boat while fishing 1km off the Waiongana River mouth.

Fisherman John Corban spotted a suspected Māui dolphin off the Manaia coast while fishing for snapper last month.

Fishing restrictions to protect the critically endangered Māui dolphins were first introduced in July 2012 and since then commercial fishing boats operating in Taranaki waters have carried Ministry for Primary Industries observers to look for the dolphins. None have been seen.

A Department of Conservation (DOC) fact page said Māui dolphins lived only along the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island in shallow waters and looked very similar to South Island Hector’s dolphins, differing mainly in skull size and genetics.

DOC launched a new Māui dolphin population survey in February and it will continue into next summer. (file photo)

The two species could only be reliably distinguished through genetic testing, the page said.

There had been sightings of the Hector’s dolphins in the Cook Strait and Queen Charlotte Sound.

The July sighting comes part way through a Department of Conservation Māui dolphin population survey, which began in February for the 2025-26 summer, with another survey planned for 2026-27.

The most recent survey in 2021 indicated there were 54 Māui dolphins over the age of 1-year-old living in waters along the west coast.

DOC senior technical advisor, marine species Kristina Hillock said she was aware of Corban’s video.

“Sightings of Māui dolphins are indeed rare, but there have been verified sightings in the past decade, mostly along the Taranaki and Waikato coastlines,” she said.

“Every confirmed sighting contributes to our understanding of how Māui dolphins use their environment, which is vital for their protection.”

She encouraged anyone who believed they had seen a Māui dolphin to report it to DOC including date, time, location, photos or videos and the number of animals seen.

“This information helps inform our ongoing conservation efforts.”