A Kiwi singer-songwriter with a massive social media following hopes to raise awareness of the plight of the Maui's dolphins with a charity song.
Jamie McDell's 'Son of the Ocean', recorded with 55 other young Kiwis, is part of the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Challenge 55 campaign -- 55 being the estimated number of adult Maui's dolphins left.
"The Maui dolphins are like the kiwis of the sea -- there's nothing like them," she says.
"A song about Maui dolphins can get people's attention asking for more protection of the species."
McDell, 23, has more than 200,000 followers on Facebook, 28,000 on Twitter, 44,000 on Instagram and 83,000 on YouTube.
WWF campaigns head Peter Hardstaff hopes the song not only raises awareness, but adds to the group's war chest to fight for the species. All proceeds from iTunes sales will go to WWF.
"We can save Maui dolphins if urgent action is taken," he says. "The Government needs to remove set-netting and trawling from Maui dolphin habitat and support affected fishers to move to dolphin-friendly fishing methods."
He says other Kiwis can get involved by taking part in the Challenge 55 campaign. So far volunteers have raised almost $17,000.
'Son of the Ocean' is out now on iTunes, and the music video has been published on YouTube.
Newshub.
