Moko's tale to screen

Two years after the death and disappearance of Moko, a documentary is showing this weekend exploring the time the dolphin spent in the Bay of Plenty.

The documentary – ‘Moko: The true story of a friendly wild dolphin’ – tracks the six months leading up to the discovery of his body on Matakana Island in 2010.

Filming Moko. Photo by Ingrid Visser.

The documentary was the project of videographer Amy Taylor, who began the documentary as part of a Masters degree in Science Communication (wildlife filming) at Otago University.

The project has been a long journey, from Amy’s time filming Moko in 2010, to the feature being picked up by TV3.

“It was a bit sad, but after his death the documentary became more interesting to broadcasters,” says Amy.

“After TV3 was interested, the project got NZ on Air funding and I worked with a production company in Auckland to finish it.”

The documentary was initially due to run on TV3 as part of the Inside NZ documentary series. However, the series was cancelled before Amy’s feature could show.

The documentary was in TV3’s hands for nearly a year.

“It was really frustrating having to sit on it and not show my work to anyone, waiting for the studio to run it,” says Amy.

She says she had no idea what would happen when she was working with Moko, or the events that unfolded leading up to his disappearance and death.

She just saw the chance to work with a friendly, wild dolphin as the opportunity of a lifetime.

“It was a bit crazy. There was something interesting happening every day, whether it was with Moko or the conflict between those who wanted to look after him or those that wanted to put him in harm’s way.

“It ended up being an interesting story even before he died. There was so much going on around him.”

Spending 6-8 hours in the water every day with Moko, the two bonded and Amy says it was incredibly sad and a “bit of a shock” when they discovered his body on Matakana Island.

But despite the sad ending, the documentary features incredible scenes with Moko and the people whose lives he touched.

Amy recalls one particular scene where renowned marine biologist Ingrid Visser came to visit Moko to research his intelligence.

“She had him looking at himself in a mirror. She wanted to see if he would look at himself in the mirror as a sign of self-awareness and higher intelligence.

“He was so smart; it was something to watch him watching himself in the mirror.”

‘Moko: The true story of a friendly wild dolphin’ is showing on TV3 on Saturday, February 4 at 4pm.

Read today’s issue of The Weekend Sun for a full story on Amy and her experiences with Moko.