Better sea bird protection sought amid ‘crisis'
International experts representing 13 countries met in Dunedin this week to discuss better protection for seabirds; yesterday delegates visited the Royal Albatross Centre at Taiaroa Head. PHOTOS: PETER MCINTOSH
New Zealand is seeking better protection for seabirds from high-seas fisheries amid a "conservation crisis" at a meeting of 13 countries in Dunedin this week, the Department of Conversation (Doc) says.
The week-long Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (Acap) meeting of the parties concludes in Dunedin today.
The meeting's chairwoman, Doc international manager Danica Stent, said scientists presented an "extremely grim picture of ongoing population declines of the world's albatross and petrels".
Nearly 70%, or 21, of the 31 Acap-listed species were at risk of extinction, and more than half were experiencing long-term, ongoing decline.
High-seas tuna longline fisheries presented one of the biggest threats to albatrosses and petrels and international studies suggested between 160,000 to 300,000 birds were killed by longline fishers each year, Ms Stent said.
Representatives from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, France, New Zealand, Norway, Peru, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom and Uruguay attended.
Taiwan attended as an observer and Forest & Bird, Birdlife International and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) were also represented.
"New Zealand's aim was to agree to an ambitious programme of work, acknowledging the urgency of the albatross and petrel conservation crisis.
"A key focus for New Zealand was seeking countries' commitment to step up efforts to implement Acap's best practice advice about how to prevent capture of seabirds in fisheries," Ms Stent said.
A northern royal albatross (toroa) chick sits on its nest at the albatross colony at Taiaroa Head yesterday.
New Zealand was an international leader on seabird conservation and working to save them was a priority, she said.
More seabird species bred in New Zealand than anywhere else in the world, and 90% of these species were under threat.
Some were at risk of extinction within decades unless international co-operation led to change, she said.
"No matter how well we do at home to get rid of predators from nest sites and reduce seabird bycatch in our waters, we will still lose our birds if we do not address bycatch on the high seas.
"Acap is the leading international organisation for seabird conservation, and it enables the collaboration we need to save our birds.
"The main barrier to saving our seabirds is that Acap has produced best-practice advice on how to minimise bycatch, but this is not implemented in high-seas fisheries."
The meeting of the parties took place every three years and countries decided what work they would undertake together to reverse the decline of albatrosses and petrels, she said.
At this week's meeting, members agreed to step up communications and engagement to ensure "the message about the seabird crisis and solutions reaches key audiences".
It would also help to influence change in high-seas fisheries more effectively, she said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- RNZ News
Department of Conservation's unsung hero
DOC ranger is an unsung hero whose job is to clean public toilets at Canterbury's DOC sites and provide toilet paper. And replacing the loo paper is a mammoth job nationwide, with DOC revealing around 15-and-a-half kilometres of paper was ordered over the last year - that's long enough to stretch the length of the country nearly ten times. Ranger Daryl Sweeney answers other people's calls of nature, but he thinks it's about time people answered their own. Photo: Department of Conservation
Otago Daily Times
13 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Moose on the LOOSE?
Two alleged sightings of the elusive moose in Fiordland have begged the age-old question — is it still out there? Mary Williams speaks to the yay-sayers, nay-sayers and maybe-sayers. It is a question of what we hold deer. Two Fiordland moose sightings, both this year, by groups of Canadian and United States trampers on the Kepler track, were treated as a yeah-nah by the Department of Conservation (Doc). Te Anau Doc manager John Lucas said he had to check that one sighting, which landed on his desk on April Fool's Day, wasn't a prank. They were most likely "deer or possibly a red/wapiti cross that has been mistaken for moose." But this is not a hunt for the proverbial Big Foot. Ten Canadian moose were released at Dusky Sound in 1910, after a tortuous journey from their colder homeland. They bred but by all accounts never got much of a hoof-hold and, "it is believed they are now extinct", Mr Lucas said. Belief and extinct are dangerous words to bandy around in Fiordland. Te Anau residents celebrate Dr Geoffrey Orbell, the man who tracked the "extinct" flightless takahe in 1948 and found a few of the surviving birds in the mountains immediately opposite the township. Four years later, the last definitive Fiordland moose photos were taken, so anyone claiming they are still out there in the 21st century must steel themselves for a storm of scorn from social media and some deer hunters. At the eye of the storm is the affable, long-married, Te Anau couple Ken and Marg Tustin, who have spent years — yes, years, often in month-long stints — living under canvas in a remote corner of Fiordland National Park, looking for moose. They have used scientific approaches, have a hopeful, fun-loving attitude as well as some compelling evidence, and are convinced that a remnant moose population is still, probably, a yeah-nah-yeah. Mr Tustin — a trained biologist, helicopter pilot and now in his 80th year — is riled at Doc's recent negative reactions. "It is absolutely astounding," he says. He is responding by inviting people to report their sightings or other evidence to him and has set up an initiative called Moose Log NZ to help people do just that. "It amazes me that they [Doc] were so disrespectful, dismissing the sightings so out-of-hand, telling them 'what they saw'. "We are talking about Fiordland megafauna here, not stick insects." Camera shy If a moose walks through the forest, but there is no-one there to snap its photo, is it still a moose? According to Doc's Mr Lucas, no. He demands "photographic proof". Mr Tustin, who has been looking for moose since the 1970s, points out that Fiordland is 1.25million hectares. Moose are huge, look different from deer but the chance of snapping a photo is slim. Only a few may be left, and if they are out there, they are solitary and likely on the move, looking for a limited supply of edible leaves. They don't hang out in clearings because, unlike deer, they are neither grass-grazers nor are they sun-seekers. They are meant to have a different diet in a colder clime. However, the two recent sightings by two groups — certain about their ability to ID moose, including a vet, and not colluding — have a ring of truth. Antoine Beauchamp, from Quebec, explains why his group of three didn't snap a pic. Their phones were in their backpacks because they were on their final day trudging the track and focused on making it to the carpark not nature photography. There is an argument that NZ deer hunters only see deer — not moose — because they are wired for that. Did Mr Beauchamp only see moose because he is Canadian and wired to see moose? "I don't think so. I have seen hundreds of deer in my life and only a couple of moose, and I know what a moose looks like." "Everyone wants to see something with their eyes but even then might call it false. We have seen the comments on Facebook saying 'Why didn't they take a picture?' but our phones were not in our hands. We noticed the animal, started talking about it, it crossed the track so we got a good look, then it disappeared into the forest." He admits there is always a chance they could be wrong but "it is important, first, to be kind and understanding, especially in a situation like this. I understand the takahe's story so it is only fair to be open to the possibility of moose." Mr Beauchamp then rattled off the moose characteristics they saw — wide flat antlers, wide nose, very long legs, brown body. If it looks like a moose, it's a moose, he thinks. Matches During 1951-52 three moose were shot by hunters, one of them at a small lake called Moose Lake. It is a wild, forested, moody spot fed by Herrick Creek and emptying into the southern edge of Wet Jacket Arm, not very far from the 1910 moose release site. Moose Lake is named thanks to Mr Tustin. He persuaded the NZ Geographic Board to name it because two moose had been shot there, the other in 1934. In 1952, a moose was also photographed standing in the lake. The area around Herrick Creek and Moose Lake has been the primary focus for much of the studies by the Tustins and Mr Tustin describes his time there with Mrs Tustin as "demanding, primeval but we thrived on it — lucky us!" They concluded that "browse sites" — where bush and tree stems have been broken and munched higher than a deer or wapiti could likely reach — demonstrated seasonal moose movements. They installed self-triggering cameras, that snapped 1500 red deer and, in 1995, "one probable female moose", captured on a blotchy picture, taken from a video frame. Max Quinn, 75, is a natural history film-maker and was making a film about the Tustins at the time. "We saw social groups of deer but the time we filmed that solitary, dark animal was the only time we saw it — a one-off, indicative of moose. "They can climb a mountain, go down a valley, swim a fiord and never be captured again." In 2000, two hunters found large hoof prints and some unusually-long, snagged animal hair at Shark Cove in Dusky Sound. It was sent to Invermay Agricultural Centre for mitochondrial DNA testing and came back 98% moose. Jamie Ward works at Otago Fish and Game now, but was a lab technician at Invermay. It was "dumb luck", he says, that the sample was less than a few days old and therefore still testable. Mr Ward is aware humans share 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees, but the hair follicles came back with lower matches for deer or wapiti that "weren't even close". "If not a moose, it was a moose hybrid and its mother was a moose, and if it was a moose hybrid that would be even more remarkable than finding a moose in New Zealand." Cross-contamination was unlikely, he says. "There had never been a moose in the lab and it was hard to believe that anyone had moose meat in the freezer". He joined forces with Mr Tustin to co-author a paper, still available on ResearchGate. In 2002, the Tustins also found a hair clump, on the northern coast of Wet Jacket Arm opposite Oke Island, and sent it to a forensic lab at Trent University in Ontario. It came back moose positive. Other samples they sent were found, predictably, to be deer. Mr Ward has views about negative reactions to the recent sighting claims. "With all the vitriol handed out, I felt, you guys, you don't know what you are talking about. Ken is one of New Zealand's foremost ungular researchers who has sat up on a mountainside for months on the dark side, from dawn to dusk, and you are none of those things so you don't really have the right to a strong opinion." In 2011, the clothing retailer Hallenstein Brothers offered a bounty of $100,000 for a photo, saying it was time to "help Ken Tustin out" but ended the offer six weeks later. Since the DNA results, there has been nothing so helpful to prove moose, but in 2020, Ben Young, a young helicopter pilot at Southern Lakes Helicopters, said he saw one from the sky. He has worked as a hunting guide in northern Canada and said he was sure. The moose waggled its big ears at him. The Tustins think there may have been other sightings not reported to Doc, because people fear ridicule. Poo possibility? In a few weeks, there is another chance of moose news. The Tustins will be studying pictures from cameras they have placed in the Seaforth Valley, which leads from Dusky Sound towards the northeast, in the direction of the Kepler track. Last year, Mr Tustin collected faeces from the valley in a place that he says was moose-browsed. He sent it to be DNA tested by Massey University but, sadly, it had degraded too much. Dr Nick Sneddon, who did the checks, explains that only the mucus on faeces can be tested and it degrades fast. Moose-seekers should "carry a clean bag, grab and bag the poo without touching it, and get it tested as soon as possible." Meanwhile, the hunting community are variably likely to start collecting poo or holding cellphones at the ready. David Veitch, experienced hunter and president of the Southern Lakes Deer Stalkers Association, is an ardent nay-sayer and uses an age-old argument. He has walked "thousands of kilometres" through Fiordland bush and never seen one with his own eyes. "It is people not identifying what they are looking at, simple as that." Owner of Te Anau hunting shop Fiordland Frontier Stephen Dobson is less damning. He would love to be proven wrong about moose extinction but preferably not with a carcass as evidence. "Nobody wants to be that person who proves it by shooting the last one." Roy Sloan, spokesman for the Wapiti Foundation, which is calling for wapiti to be protected as a Herd of Special Interest, is also up for good news and ready to rename his organisation the Wapiti and Moose Foundation — just as soon as he sees a photo. "Ken is very honest and not out for a story. If the DNA evidence wasn't moose, what else could it be?" Meanwhile, Mr Tustin is still smiling broadly at the recent sightings and a lifetime of fun in the forest with a woman he loves. He also cherishes the friendships made along the way. "It means the world that smart, observant people have been so lucky to have their tracks crossed by this rare, rare animal and recognise the importance and want to share it. We are thrilled for them and ourselves." "They have brought the project back to life, just when we've been struggling to do the fieldwork, and when moose numbers are at their likely lowest ebb." "It's something to celebrate in this mean old world of ours. A flash of bright light. I love it that when man believes he knows everything, then here comes moose, unheralded, the size of a horse, outwitting — or out-moosing? — us all for years. What does that tell us about ourselves and the quality of Fiordland wilderness? Moose 1, humans 0." — To register a sighting with Ken, email mooselognz@
Otago Daily Times
5 days ago
- Otago Daily Times
Wapiti presence key for park: advocates
Eliminating wapiti from Fiordland National Park will end up destroying the park, a backer of the exotic breed says. Earlier this month, Forest & Bird hit out at Hunting and Fishing Minister James Meager's announcement the government planned to make wapiti a herd of special interest that would allow them to live in Fiordland National Park. Forest & Bird chief executive Nicola Toki questioned why help would be given to 512 hunters shooting 86 deer in a national park. The introduced feral species damaged the natural habitat of endangered species. Fiordland Wapiti Foundation founder and general manager Roy Sloan was baffled by the comments from Forest & Bird and said the wapiti were helping conservation efforts. He was aware Ms Toki had been into the area to see the foundation's conservation work. He also said Ms Toki's figures were incorrect. ''What about the 1200 deer that we shoot every year for the benefit of conservation outcomes? ''It's not about a big vege patch, it's about who is protecting the sanctuary.'' The foundation's ''number one purpose'' was to protect Fiordland National Park, he said. Controlling the deer numbers also managed their impact and maintained the quality of the animal. ''We're the only ones undertaking deer control in Fiordland National Park,'' Mr Sloan said. Forest & Bird said undermining the incredible landscapes and habitats of Fiordland National Park so a few hunters could shoot a small number of deer each year was catering to a handful of vested interests at the expense of all New Zealanders. ''To be clear, Forest & Bird is not anti-hunting. Hunting is part of the toolbox in tackling the out-of-control numbers of browsing animals that are causing significant damage to New Zealand's environment and many of our members are keen hunters. However, we are equally clear that putting precious time and taxpayer money into a Herd of Special Interest is not a priority.'' It said the government was looking at changing the law to let a North American deer species use the national park as a ''glorified vege patch''. Hunters also donated multiple tonnes of venison to food banks and KiwiHarvest. Doc national programmes director Ben Reddiex said the organisation monitored all deer populations and vegetation but also supported the foundation's work. The foundation managed wapiti in a designated area to limit wapiti-red deer hybrid offspring being established by the red deer that were widespread throughout the park. Mr Sloan believed if wapiti were removed and the foundation closed, the park would be decimated by the red deer population which hunters helped to keep under control. The foundation had been managing the wapiti population since 1991 and members considered themselves ''guardians''. The foundation had also managed, paid for, and operated more than 550 predator control traps in five river catchments in the Glaisnock Wilderness area to protect native birds since its predator trapping programme started in 2005. Hunters reported bird species sightings via an app and had amassed more than 40,000 hours of native bird monitoring each year or the equivalent of 20 years' work for one person, he said. Since 2005, members had seen the threatened Northern Fiordland whio (blue duck) population increase to up to 3000 birds. The ducks are particularly vulnerable to stoats. Other native bird species had also benefited from the predator control programme, he said. One of the last strongholds of kiwi was in the designated wapiti area. The foundation's goals had always been conservation first and based on having a low number of high-quality healthy wapiti that enabled the native fauna and flora to thrive — a healthy environment also meant a healthy wapiti herd, Mr Sloan said. The foundation's conservation model was attracting international interest as ''one of the top models on the planet''.
