School shark, lemon fish, butterfish and mullet need to be taken off the menu if we're hoping to save the Maui dolphin.

A campaign starts today to highlight the link between the fishing industry and the extinction of the rare dolphin, of which only 55 remain.

Chair of Maui and Hector's Dolphin Defenders Christine Rose said the Government needs to take more urgent action.

"We're really concerned that the hand has been taken off the throttle on this most urgent of extinction crises that's been caused by New Zealand consumption of pretty cheap and nasty fish in our fish and chip shops."

She said net fishing in Maui dolphin habitats has been limited by only 11 percent and that's not good enough.

"We'd like them to take much more urgent action to mitigate that by-catch, so there should be no gill netting in Maui and Hector's dolphin habitats."