SHOOTING OF SHAGS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 December 1938, Page 5

SHOOTING OF SHAGS

PROTECTED SPECIES KILLED. “There is a very mistaken notion among many members of Acclimatisation Societies that all species of shags prey on trout,” said Captain E. V. Sanderson, president of the Forest and Bird Protection Society at a recent meeting of the executive. “The relentless destruction of native shags by Acclimatisation Societies and the Department of Internal Affairs Which controls the Rotorua Acclimatisation district is not justifiable.

“In a recent issue of an Auckland paper, a photograph appears showing the shag bag secured by some misinformed shootists. The birds, so far as can be recognised in the picture, are all pied shags, which are marine feeders.

“An article in a Southland paper states that a ranger had shot 450 shags. One wonders how many of these belonged to protected or non-harmful species, in regard to trout. The black river shag is the only species which may be harfmul to fresh water fish, and there are very well-informed people who affirm that this species is beneficial to trout, despite the fact that it does eat some.

“The reports one reads in the Press about shag shoots sound like the story of the pogrom against the Jews in Germany. Surely it is more cowardly to shoot these defenceless birds on their nests than humans who assuredly will counter attack. Yet the perpetrators of these cowardly acts appear to present (heir names to the public as heroes. Verily a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” The speaker quoted the following opinions on the habits of the pied shag culled from the writings of ornithologists:—

“It is essentially a salt-water species, feeding off-shore and returning to the mainland, or to some island to roose.” —Edgar F. Stead. “Fishes mostly taken along the sea coast form its principal food. It visits its fishing grounds daily, returning in the evening to roost on the trees in which it was reared.” —W. R. B. Oliver. “Its food consists mainly of fish of every marine species, but it is not one of the shags with which Acclimatisation Societies need be concerned in regard to the problem, of shags and trout.”—R. A. Falla. It was decided to send to the Hon W. E. Parry. Minister of Internal Affairs, a letter protesting against the indiscriminate war waged against shags.