Calypso to decide on dolphin filming

Press, 12 January 1987, Page 6

Calypso to decide on dolphin filming

The Calypso crew have yet to decide whether they will remain in and around Akaroa Harbour this week to film the Hector dolphins, said a scientist studying the dolphins, Ms Elizabeth Slooten, in Wainui yesterday. Ms Slooten and Mr Stephen Dawson had been invited last year to take part in the possible filming of the' small endemic dolphin. Since the Calypso arrived in Akaroa Barbour on Thursday it had been busy filming the '.rare pie* phant fish around the peninsula, Ms Sicoten said. “We are supposed to be meeting the crew during the next few days to discuss the dolphin filming,” she said. “There .are plenty of Hector dolphins around for them to film. “The decision to film the dolphins will partly

depend on the weather • conditions so the crew have to take each day as it comes.” The interest in the Hector dolphins by the Calypso crew was triggered by an address that Ms Slooten and Mr Dawson gave in 1985 to the Ocean Society in Auckland which was at- J tended by Jacque Cousteau’s son, Jean-Michelle. Since then, the Calypso crew have kept in touch with the two scientists, who are based a: Wainui. They have been studying the Hector dolphin for two years and found that there were about 4000 of them left around New Zealand. About 600 were estimated by the scientists to be in the Banks Peninsula waters. . The dolphin ,is a threatened and possibly an endangered species.