Getting ready for the biggest population change in recent history. And looking down on us ` a warning from a NASA astronaut. Due to the live nature of Close Up, captions for some items may be incomplete. ONE News captions by Richard Edmunds and Lauren Strain. Close Up captions by Faith Hamblyn and Angela Alice. Would you save a dolphin or save a job? It's where the rubber hits the road in the argument over saving the environment ` a point brought home in Taranaki recently when an interim ban on set nets all around the coast was announced and jobs swiftly went. So take a look this. Can you tell the difference? One is a Maui's dolphin ` the world's smallest and rarest dolphin. Rough guesstimates says there's maybe 50 adults left. The other's the Hector's dolphin, mainly found in the South Island. There's about 7000 of them. They can only be told apart by sample testing, and fishermen claim no one's confirmed a Maui's dolphin in Taranaki in about 25 years. But the ban's in and the jobs are gone. So dolphins or local fishermen? Both are on the edge of extinction. Here's Hadyn Jones. FLEETWOOD MAC'S 'ALBATROSS' In coastal Taranaki, fisherman of all persuasions have long flocked to the sea for food. These days it's mostly amateurs,... except for Ian McDougal (63), who is one of just five commercial fisherman left in New Plymouth. I shifted over here about 18-odd years ago. I came over for my eldest boy's wedding and fell in love with the place. Had no idea what I was going to do, and I just happened to fall into fishing. I love it. Ian's job is about to get much tougher, with the government recently banning set nets within 2 miles of the Taranaki coast. Between 2 and 7 miles, you must have a government observer on board. By losing the 2 mile is going to lose, I'd say, around about $100,000 of my income. These are interim bans while the government learns more about the Maui's dolphin, but Ian has taken these measures hard, because deep down he knows he may have inadvertently caused them. Nobody will ever know just how I felt. It was <BLEEP>ing gut-wrenching. Five months ago his nets caught a dolphin. Either a Hector's or a Maui's ` no one knows, because Ian reported it to DOC and disposed of the dolphin as he's supposed to do, but he knew having a protected species in his net would be trouble. ALL CHANT: Set nets out now! Several months later the environmentalists were marching on Parliament, the ban was put in place, and Ian was feeling guilty and angry. That Ian McDougall is the guy that has absolutely destroyed our fishing careers, because he reported a Maui's dolphin` uh, a Hector's dolphin. We've told them, time after time, we don't see them, we are positive, and what's the minister doing? 'Oh, I'm uncertain, so I think I'll shut it down, and <BLEEP> you.' There is, of course, one giant intangible in all of this debate between the Greenies and DOC and the government and the fisherman, of course, and that big intangible is... well, it's the sea. It's so big and vast and immeasurable, no one knows how many Maui dolphins are out there. Are there five or 10? And most of all no one knows where they are and how they're dying. Ocean Pearl Fisheries is the first to cut jobs in anticipation of the ban. The owner's Rob Ansley. He declined an interview. He says he's not up to it after having to cut staff this week from 18 to around six. The ban is all the customers can talk about. Well, it's a disaster for the local fisherman, isn't it? Warwick Chiles was the first to lose his job at Ocean Pearl. He's only ever been a fisherman. There's not even one job in here at all. Nothing. He says he was told by his boss the set net ban had cost him his career. It's a ban to save a dolphin he says he's never seen in two decades on the water. We try and tell them we haven't seen no dolphins out here for over 20 years, any Hector's or Maui dolphins, and they don't believe us. As far as we are concerned, fisherman are just liars. I did learn one thing a long time ago ` if you lead with your chin, some bugger is going to whack it. Gordon Brown's a senior columnist at the Taranaki Daily News. Earlier this week he launched into print, accusing the government of acting on flimsy evidence. Is this much different from the taniwha and the highway they had to shift to go around mythical Maori ancestry? It's just rubbish, I'm sorry, and once somebody produces a Maui dolphin confirmed sighting off Taranaki, then let's have an appropriate response. Gordon's column was a lightning rod for both camps and an easy target for those who sling their arrows online. < Do you think your opinion would be in the minority or the majority in Taranaki? I think in NZ it would be in the majority, simply because while we all love dolphins ` let's accept that, I mean, who didn't like Flipper ` here's the reality: we are being dictated to by a noisy minority who keep making the same noise over and over until we will be paralyzed into doing anything. Keith Mawson owns Egmont Seafoods. He's paid $2m he says for a fish quota he's being restricted access to. If this was on land, it would be similar to the government coming and taking a portion of a farmer's farm and not looking at compensating. Keith says essentially banning five Taranaki fishing boats won't save the Maui. There are other affects on this Maui dolphin population, such as pollution, disease, predation, boat strikes. The only one that the government has addressed at this stage is fishing, and if fishing is the only one they are going to continue to address, this population is doomed. Back at the wharf, Ian's boat is back. A pretty poor day, actually. One of those days you didn't want to be there. But with the set net ban coming into force in a few weeks,... Don't drop it. ...Ian is getting what he can while he can. That is our prime target species for the whole winter, and we're catching the majority of it inside of the 2 nautical mile at the moment. Ian says part of fishing is sometimes just surviving against the elements. Do you feel a little bit like the Maui dolphin? Almost extinct? Yes. Yeah. The fishermen aren't pulling their punches. What do the wildlife experts have to say? Joining me now is Rebecca Bird, marine programme manager from the World Wildlife Fund. when you are program in March, you want a much stronger measures. We're pleased the government are taking some measures to protect the world's rarest and smallest dolphin. we need to look at all the threats to the dolphins. Our focus has been on the key threat to these dolphins, which is fishing. we cannot have these two industries coexisting. we're only talking about five boats. Is this like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut? we do have the opportunity. There is a strong science perspective that if we do everything we can now, the Dolphins won't suffer. these guys don't believe the Dolphins were there. No one's seen one in 25 years. Are they telling the truth? there's been a lack of knowledge in terms of what's going on and coverage in these fisheries. We've had a lack of reporting and recording. Dolphins have signs of net marks on them, so the other issue that we have is that there are verified sightings that show that these dolphins are in this area. If a fishermen says he hasn't seen one, you're not buying that? that information took a while to filter through the system, but it was reported, and that's what needs to happen. the strongest proof that we have is that this is in Maui's range. if one is caught, it's disposed of. There's no tissue sample taken. If that's the only way to tell them apart, how are you getting accurate records? with this biopsy research with the latest population estimate, we understand there are hectors Dolphins found in the Maui's population. you believe they're there. What are you doing? You haven't said how you're working. we sat down with the fishing industry a decade ago. When we said we have itself and that is on the brink of extinction. the community is hurting in Taranaki right now. Have you been to talk to them? with been working in the community from an education perspective and a community perspective. I'm concerned that were in this predicament. is it worth 50 jobs to ensure the population of the species? they worth more alive than dead. They're worth every bit of employment opportunity that we can possibly look at. These fishes do not have do fish with kill nets. These fish can be caught using other nets. There is opportunity for transition here. These people have been let down by their own industry and the government. So what do you think? The economy versus the environment ` we'd like to hear your views. Go to our website or email us at... And we're on Facebook too. Coming up ` a city's changing face. Why Christchurch could soon be NZ's multicultural centre. And looking down on us ` a warning from a NASA astronaut. We're going to use up all of Earth's resources. And her final conversation with the Columbia crew. It would appear a catastrophic incident in the skies over Texas. At OPSM, we use precision technology to look deep in the eye, helping us better detect eye disease such as glaucoma ` just one of the ways we look deeper. Talk to OPSM about an eye-health check-up today. Christchurch will never be the same again, and it's nothing to do with the buildings. The city's undergoing what's potentially the biggest population change our country's seen in recent history. With the rebuild, thousands of people from not just NZ but all over the world are on their way in. But are they welcome? Alexi O'Brien takes a look. It's very obvious that there's not enough tradespeople in Christchurch or NZ to tend to the build. If you don't have the skills, then we simply can't get the job done. It's going to be one of the major changes that's going to occur in NZ over the next decade. There's no denying it's a big job. We've got hundreds of thousands of houses to fix. We have a CBD that needs entirely rebuilding. The earthquakes have forever altered the physical face of the city. Now the rebuild will change the faces of those who live here. The demand for labour's going to be huge, and the local supply is not going to be adequate to meet that demand. Predictions vary wildly, but it's expected that around 23,000 extra construction-related workers will be needed. Some of those will come through training programmes over the next few years, but in the short term, recruiters like Matt Jones are looking overseas. We recruit heavily out of the local market. But as these projects start taking off, senior staff are required, management staff. A lot of people have left Christchurch. A lot of people don't want to come to Christchurch from within NZ. He's spent almost four of the past 12 months in the UK and Ireland, getting more than a hundred workers on board. Their economies up there are very poor. The construction industries are in depression up there. Their qualifications, their work ethic is very similar to NZers. OK, we put the three of them up there. I was thinking about putting number one, number two and then number three. Gary McEntee says the boom here's similar to that he experienced in Ireland, where he'd owned his own company. Ireland had what was known as the Celtic tiger. I employed people from Australia, NZ, Australia, people from China, Lithuania, Poland and Russia. So Ireland couldn't have done the Celtic tiger without having workers from abroad. An influx of mainly male workers will bring its own problems, such as learning to relate to a changing workforce. It's not just that the migrant has to become a NZer and act out all the NZ ways of working; it's a give-and-take situation. And Auckland sociologist Paul Spoonley believes much of the rebuild's success depends on how the migrants are welcomed by Cantabrians. It could become a much more multicultural city. Christchurch has always been the English rose of NZ ` green parks, beautiful buildings, colonial, conservative. HEAVY METAL MUSIC <BLEEP> you! Unfortunately, Christchurch is also the home to the most significant of our racist groups in NZ. <BLEEP>! They attack people who are different ` people who are Asian, in particular. They used to call me, 'Oh, you curry muncher, why don't you go to your own country?' If people want to be racist, that's their choice to do so. There has been a lot more instances of racism that I have encountered here in Christchurch. The demographics of the city are going to change. There's going to be a lot of very different faces around the city and get them prepared for that. Because we didn't really do that in Auckland, and I think Christchurch can learn from that. Auckland is now one of the most diverse cities in the world. The boom of migrants over the past two decades or so mean the city streets teem with multiculturalism. We've got newcomers events and events being done to help that and help these people to settle, because we want them to stick. We want them to stay here. We don't want them going home because they're unhappy or they're not fitting in. Taz Mukorombindo knows about wanting to fit in. I had a bit of a culture shock a few weeks after arriving. I thought I must be the only African here! Arriving from Zimbabwe almost 10 years ago, he now runs a business mentoring migrants wanting employment and helping with networking. Hello, Girdhari. Hello, brother. How are you? Very well, very well. It is very cold today! It was tough at the time, but I think in hindsight I've learnt a lot. He says migrants will not just be vital for the physical rebuild for the city, but also its emotional and cultural prosperity, and wants an ethnic precinct to get the green light. It would then have market, ethnic retailing for all kinds of clothes, shoes, bags. One of the things that I think has been fantastic about Christchurch is that the immigrant communities made a real contribution in the immediate aftershock of the earthquake, so I think there's a different perception now about those immigrants than there was perhaps even two years ago, pre-earthquake. We came to support our brothers in this part of the world. Now most people on the street seem excited about the prospect of change. Bringing people in will help the economic system. NZ's built on migration. That's how we all got here, a lot of us. I'd just hate to see the country full of other people, really ` migrants. It's our quiet little country. It's got to change. If it wants to grow, if it wants to rebuild, it's got to overcome the conservativeness. We're going to access to a whole range of cultures that possibly we didn't have much access to before. It's going to enrich and give new dimensions to life in Canterbury. Just ahead, Earth from an out-of-this-world perspective ` the astronaut who says this planet must try harder. If we're not slowing our rate, then really, we're going to use up all of Earth's resources sooner than we'd like. Stephanie Wilson has clocked up 42 days in space, but she's not finished. The astronaut, who's been ringside for some of the triumphs and disasters in space exploration, says there is much more to do yet. Michael Holland finds out what and what drives her on. Three, two, one, zero and lift-off of Discovery. Blazing a trial of scientific discoveries aboard the space station. The thing that surprised me a little bit is how fun it is to float through the space station. It is tough to comprehend. It's spectacular view. The colours are very vivid. The blues of the ocean are very deep, the reds of the deserts. When you fly over the snow-capped Himalayas, you know, you can tell that those features are raised. An awesome view. Describe that sense of distance. It's shorter than the distance I travel from Houston, Texas to Auckland. It's shorter than the distance I travel from Houston, Texas to Auckland. 400km off the surface of the Earth ` it's not that far away. Does it confirm for you our vulnerability? A little bit. There's also a sense of peace. Often when we're leaving Earth for our missions, there's some strife ongoing in the world, but that strife is not visible to us from that vantage point. And so it appears very peaceful, so that's something that's very striking, and also how fragile Earth is. You can see the deforestation and the changes that have occurred because of our presence. It's more the fact that if we're not slowing our rate, then really we're going to use up all of Earth's resources sooner than we'd like. And so we need to make sure that we're not doing that and we have something to preserve for future generations. From on high, you can worry about planet Earth. You can, very much so. Given that the space shuttle programme has ended, is space still in vogue? I believe that it is. We need to continue and return to the Moon or on to Mars or visit an asteroid and extend our knowledge even further. Hail to the Robo Chicks! It's just nice to be able to share this experience. How many days, how many miles in space? 42 days; each mission was about 2.3 million miles. So I'd say the total would be about six-point-something million miles. A considerable emergency going on right now throughout the space community, throughout NASA mission control. It would appear a catastrophic incident in the skies over Texas. You had an intimate connection with the 2003 Columbia flight. There were three members of the Columbia crew that were members of my astronaut class ` members of the class of 1996. And at that time, I was working in mission control. I was what we call a capsule communicator. So we in general have an astronaut that speaks to crew members during their missions, and I was the capsule communicator for the Columbia crew. So I signed off my last session with the Columbia crew for their on-orbit activities, handed over to the entry flight-control team and was awakened probably about four hours later, after I returned home to sleep, that there had been, you know, an accident or a problem, at least. We were not in communication with Columbia. Columbia, Houston, comm check. SILENCE Columbia, Houston, UHF comm check. SILENCE Columbia, Houston, UHF comm check. I mean, it was very tragic. The NASA family was very saddened. Do you remember your last contact with the crew? When flight-control teams change, we kind of sign off. You know, we sort of sign on and say hello, and then we sign off, and I do remember saying, you know, 'It's been a great mission. 'You know, we'll see you in Houston at Ellington Field at your return,' for a big celebration that Johnson Space Center holds. So we had that conversation that I would see them at Ellington Field, you know, the next day. Did that tragedy make you reassess? It did, but it also made me have a renewed commitment to space flight. Unless their dying be in vain, we really wanted to honour their legacy and continue with space flight and ensure that the shuttle would be safer. What is your potential involvement in anything upcoming? Well, I hope to have one additional flight ` a long-duration stay on the International Space Station. It would be a six-month stay. Could that become mundane? No. Each mission is different, each space walk is different, experiments are different, and the excitement is there like it's new every time. Feedback now, and on our lead story about the Maui's dolphin, you had a lot to say. Erin on Facebook says... Alan says... Jeremy emails... And that's NZ Close Up. Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright TVNZ Access Services 2012