Cannon-netting

Forest and Bird, Issue 298, 1 November 2000, Page 3

Cannon-netting

Upper

Hutt

Katharine M. Hudson,

The involvement of members of Forest and Bird in the activities of the New Zealand Wader Study group is very detrimental to the image of the Society. The Society exists to protect birds and forests. Therefore, we should not cause unnecessary trauma to migratory birds in order to satisf our human curiousity about their habits. Instead we should welcome their annual arrival on our shores, admire them from a distance, and leave them in peace. Cannon-netting migratory birds, then putting them in dark boxes (for how long...?) before tagging them, is cruelty which our Society should denigrate, and not condone. We do not have to emulate the British of the 1960s, and we should definitely disassociate Forest and Bird from the wader

study group. And what gives us the right to persuade Asian governments ‘to leave protected areas as resting places for the birds’ when we ourselves assist in the continuation of cannon-netting?

The convenor of the wader study group, Adrian Riegen, responds: It would be wonderful to sit back and admire the Arctic waders from a distance and leave them in peace. We tried that with hundreds of species of flora and fauna, once very common but now no longer with us. If Don Merton and his coworkers had sat back and left the black robin and kakapo alone, those birds too would be gone. By studying a species while it is common we have a better chance of preserving it for future generations to enjoy.