14053 (2025). Hon Rachel Brooking to the Minister of Conservation

14053 (2025). Hon Rachel Brooking to the Minister of Conservation: What advice, if any, has the Minister received on whether the Department of Conservation’s biopsy sampling could negatively impact long-term monitoring efforts by making Hector’s dolphins boat shy?

Hon Tama Potaka: I have not received advice on whether the Department of Conservation’s biopsy sampling could negatively impact long-term monitoring efforts by making Hector’s dolphins boat shy. I understand from the Department of Conservation that there is no evidence that biopsy sampling has caused animals to become boat shy from any work carried out in New Zealand, including at least two decades of work using this approach on Māui dolphins.