New Zealand Geographic is delighted to announce Dr Karen Stockin of Massey University as the recipient of its first research grant.

“The common dolphin is an overlooked species simply because of its name. It is the only resident dolphin not featured in DOC’s Marine Mammal Action Plan,” says Stockin, who heads the New Zealand Common Dolphin Project, the first dedicated study of these marine mammals. “But we’re flying in the face of ignorance as we have no real fix on the animal’s abundance, how they’re faring or even if we’re dealing with a single population.”

Stockin moved from England to New Zealand in 2002 to undertake her PhD on common dolphins in the Hauraki Gulf, having spent years studying dolphins, porpoises and whales off Scotland’s north-east coast and elsewhere. Research into common dolphin populations in other parts of the world is not encouraging—populations of common dolphins in the Mediterranean are in such low numbers they are now listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List as critically endangered.

Like so many native New Zealand species, common dolphins (Delphinus sp.) have evolved in isolation and research shows that their taxonomies and behaviour are quite distinct from common dolphins in other parts of the world.

“Common dolphins are at the top of the food chain and because of this they are a prime indicator species for the health of our marine environment. At the moment we know virtually nothing about the state of common dolphin populations in New Zealand, yet these animals are the basis of much of our marine tourism industry.”

Stockin notes that conservation is increasingly focussing on entire ecosystems, rather than on iconic or charismatic animals, and common dolphins offer scientists insight into what’s happening at the top of the food chain, and also further down. “Because these dolphins are apex predators, they’ll be one of the first to leave if conditions deteriorate, as they can just move on out of here.”

Through her New Zealand Geographic Trust grant, Stockin aims to establish baseline data on the biology and ecology of New Zealand common dolphins. She will incorporate those research findings into the first genus-specific marine mammal management plan for New Zealand Delphinus, a project that curates a database of all information gathered from post-mortems conducted on dolphins that have been stranded or caught as by-catch, and which includes a photo-identification catalogue of over 600 individuals.