Pacific Indigenous leaders have a new plan to protect whales. Treat them as people
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For Māori conservationist Mere Takoko, “losing one whale is like losing an ancestor.” The animals “taught our people about navigation across the Pacific, particularly across the Milky Way… And this is information that was given to our ancestors.”

The environmental activist from the small town of Rangitukia, on New Zealand’s east coast, is spearheading a movement of Indigenous groups in the Pacific pushing to protect the magnificent marine mammals, inking a groundbreaking treaty to make them legal persons with inherent rights.

The document is part of a multi-pronged effort to safeguard whales, which also includes quantifying their monetary value as carbon-depleting “bioengineers of our oceans”, and deploying the latest tech to track boats that harm them.

While the declaration is non-binding and would still need government recognition to become law, conservationists hope personhood will lead to enhanced protection for these creatures, with many species endangered.

“Our mokopuna (grandchildren) deserve an ocean brimming with life, where the melodies of whales echo across the vast expanses,” Māori King Tūheitia Pōtatau said at the signing of the treaty in the Cook Islands. Along with the Māori of New Zealand and groups from the Cook Islands, Indigenous leaders from Tahiti, Tonga, Hawaii, and Easter Island signed the He Whakaputanga Moana treaty.