22 dead dolphins in nets raise alert in New Zealand

The New Zealand Government's release of photographs of 22 dead dolphins in trawler nets has prompted fresh calls for it to ban two types of nets from the habitats of two critically endangered species.

The World Wide Fund for Nature in New Zealand says Maui's dolphins are down to just 111 animals living along North Island's west coast.

To avoid extinction, the world's smallest dolphins urgently needed protection from set nets and trawler nets.

The numbers of another endangered New Zealand species, the Hector's dolphin, have declined from an estimated 29,000 in the 1970s to 7000.