Unwelcome Visitors

Forest and Bird, Issue 296, 1 May 2000, Page 3

Unwelcome Visitors

Otanerito, Akaroa

Fiona Farrell,

A promotional paper published at Christmas encourages people to visit the new Pohatu Marine Reserve at Flea Bay, Banks Peninsula. Flea Bay is a unique mainland nesting site for white-flippered penguins and hoiho (yellow-eyed penguin). They have survived there relatively undisturbed, protected by a difficult road and a farming family who have made a science of predator control. Recently the site became the property of the Department of Conservation and clearly a very different style of management is in operation. I live in a similar bay a little further north. Within living memory, it had a large population of white-flippered penguins. An elderly man recalls happy childhood days hunting the birds at night by torchlight. Hoiho attempt to nest here from time to time but are defeated each year

by predators and human invasion. Overfishing by professionals and amateurs is common every summer and near-impossi-ble to police. For its protection a place like Flea Bay needs inaccessability and anonymity. This should be obvious from the most cursory survey of the area. What on earth is the Department of Conservation doing promoting it as a place to visit?