Westland black petrel

Forest and Bird, Volume 22, Issue 4, 1 November 1991, Page 4

Westland black petrel

Alan Tennyson

iE ARGE BLACK PETRELS crashing through the forest canopy as they return to their burrows, then calling and displaying are sights few have seen. However, the Westland petrels are set to become an important tourist attraction for the West Coast. Forest and Bird members, Bruce Stuart-Menteath and Denise Howard have built a boardwalk and viewing platform that allows easy viewing of the petrels at a nesting colony south of Punakaiki. The world’s only colony of Westland black petrels is scattered along the coastal ranges from Punakaiki to Barrytown. Typical of petrels, Westland blacks spend most of their lives at sea, returning to land only to breed. They are the largest burrow nesting petrel and only come ashore at night. At sea they range as far afield as South America and Australia. Westland blacks are a powerful and aggressive species. This has allowed them to survive on the mainland despite some losses to introduced predators such as cats, dogs, stoats and rats. Most petrel species now breed only on relatively inaccessible offshore islands because of predation on the mainland. In the past, petrel colonies like the Westland black colony would have been common in coastal areas throughout much of New Zealand.

Visits

The earliest birds come ashore in March. The colony is most active from April to August but chicks can be seen until November. Visits to the colony take two

hours, beginning 30 minutes before sunset and are available only by arrangement with Paparoa Nature Tours. All visitors are accompanied by a guide. For more information contact: Paparoa Nature Tours, PO Box 36, Punakaiki, West Coast.

Mining threat

North Broken Hill Peko’s proposal to mine 1300ha of the Barrytown Flats alluvial ironsands for ilmenite has recently hit the headlines. Local people are concerned that fragile wetlands and coastal areas will be destroyed by the mine, a scar created on the doorstep to the spectacular Paparoa National Park, and their idyllic rural area transformed into a large industrial mine site. The giant mine, which would be New Zealand's largest by far, also directly threatens the future of the Westland black petrel. Most of the petrel burrows are protected within the Black Petrel Nature

Reserve and Forest and Bird’s adjacent petrel reserve gifted to the Society by Fletcher Titanium before they sold the ilmenite project to Broken Hill. The mining application area comes within 20m of nesting petrels, and the 25m high processing plant is to be sited directly in the petrel flight-path to the colony. Forest and Bird’s West Coast branch has opposed the proposed plans to mine so close to nesting petrels and objects to the siting of the processing plant. Petrels will be attracted at night to the lights of the plant and mining dredges. They could be killed by flying into these structures. Fledglings will be especially vulnerable on their first flights from the colony. Increased human activity around the plant may result in greater numbers of dogs and cats being in the vicinity of the petrel colony and increased levels of predation. It remains to be seen whether the mining proposal could be modified to meet the environmental concerns. #&