Archive for the ‘Threats from Poaching and Poisoning’ Category

Fitzgibbon’s Kangaroo Massacre 9th May 2009

Wednesday, October 26th, 2011

This article was initially published by Tigerquoll 20090514 on CanDoBetter.net:

.

Australia’s Defence Minister, Joel Fitzgibbon MP, has just been handed AUD$26,950,000,000 to unjustifiably escalate Australia’s military aggression, at a time when Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says the world economy is gripped by the worst recession in 50 years.

Labor’s 2009 Defence White Paper indulges to the extreme, planning for so-called “Defence” (against what?) to receive some $146 billion in additional funding across the life of the White Paper to 2030.

Hypocritically at the same time, Fitzgibbon has rejected spending just $3.5 million to save thousands of Australia’s grey kangaroos fenced in on Defence land at Majura training range just outside Canberra. And at a time when Federal MPs have just awarded themselves another pay rise of $4000 pa for ‘electoral allowances’. It all stinks like British Parliamentary abuses.

Australia’s kangaroos, stressed from people altering their habitat, have been denied their freedom to roam their traditional grazing lands due to it being bulldozed for selfish property development, due to drought, consistent shooting and from uncontrolled bushfires.

Despite wildlife ecologist Dr Dror Ben-Ami telling the review tribunal that the Defence Department has no assessments of any impacts caused by the kangaroos nor that the kangaroos pose any threat to any threatened species on the Majura range, Fitzgibbon has condoned the senseless slaughter of 4000 of a population of 9000 trapped kangaroos be shot in secret, just last Saturday, 9th May 2009. Fitzgibbon approved a similar massacre just on a year ago at the same place – it must be some idea of a sick sport to him!

Fitzgibbon says it is to reduce the kangaroos to ‘sustainable levels‘.

How’s the language?

How is this mass killing different to April 1994 when the Hutu militia hacked thousands of Tutsis to death in Rwanda, or July 1995 in Srebrenica when Serb General Ratko Mladic systematically selected and then massacred 8,372 men and boys ‘of fighting age’ (between the ages of twelve and sixty), or in May 2000 when the Sri Lanka Army used banned cluster bombs from China, multi barrel rocket Launchers killing 2,000 Tamil civilians in the island’s north?

Just four days ago, 378 Tamil civilians were killed after Sri Lankan forces fired a massive barrage of artillery shells at Tamil Tiger rebels. Again the UN stands by – bit like how Pope Pius XII stood back while Hilter’s Nazis massacred millions of Jews during WWII.

In these human massacres, the killers use propaganda to describe their victims such as ‘terrorists’, ‘militants’ and justfity the massacres as ‘ethnic cleansing’. In each of the above human massacres, the UN has stood back and watched.

Like these human massacre, thousands of Australia’s iconic kangaroos, have just as much right to life as humans, yet they are been similarly slaughtered in secret. Defence uses fabricated propaganda like the kangaroos being in “plague proportions” and “hordes” and “pests”, that their “populations have exploded”; that they “compete for pasture”; and the latest ludicrous example; “they are eating endangered species of grass”. All so as to spin the sick aim of “sustainable culling”.

It’s simply a ecological massacre. It has just been done in secret with approval of Joel Fitzgibbon. How is he any different to Sri Lankan Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa?

This tragic massacre deserves to be written into Australia’s history as……’Fitzgibbon’s Massacre‘.

.

Tags: Australia's grey kangaroos, Canberra, Defence Department, Fitzgibbon Massacre, Joel Fitzgibbon, kangaroo cull ACT, kangaroo slaughter, kangaroos shot Canberra, Majura Training Area, roo shooter
Posted in Kangaroos and Macropods, Threats from Poaching and Poisoning | No Comments »

Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg

Kangaroo rapers and the E.coli time bomb

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

This article was initially published by Tigerquoll onCanDoBetter.net on 20090524:

Australia’s native kangaroo – targeted by poachers and mass slaughter encouraged by Australian governments

.

The Australian outback town of Mitchell lies in the Western Downs region of southern Queensland on the Warrego Highway just shy of 600 km west of Brisbane on the way to Charleville. Situated on the Maranoa River, the town of Mitchell was named in honour of the 19th Century explorer, and the town emerged as a pastoral town out of the farming of grains, beef and sheep. Tourism has become a strong drawcard to Mitchell and especially to its Great Artesian Spa.

But more recently, Mitchell’s fame has been lowered to infamy with it taking on a reputation for becoming the home of the kangaroo slaughter trade.

.
“You see a lot of utes in Mitchell and the towns just like it that emerge from the roadside only to disappear again as you drive west through southern Queensland on the Warrego Highway. You can tell the ones that are driven by kangaroo shooters. They have racks for guns and long spikes upon which the freshly eviscerated carcasses are placed. One, parked just around the corner, has black steel bullbars with the words “roo raper” cut into them.”

‘Besides the slaughter of Australia’s iconic kangaroos for pet meat and indeed export for human consumption in fancy restaurant,

it is the sanitary conditions that is shocking and a life threatening time bomb’

Following the international biolab standards of Silliker, animal liberation chief, Mark Pearson says “the last time we did swabs here and in Charleville, they were alarmingly high in E.coli.“

‘The chiller doors aren’t locked. When Ben-Ami opens the first, problems are immediately apparent. Bright drips from fresh kills are spotting onto another layer of older, duller, deader blood, which is particularly thick nearest the front. The lip of the door frame is so thick and sticky, the red’s turned a dull, dark brown. Hairs are stuck to it.

.

‘The carcasses are packed as tightly as possible.

They hang from hooks by their legs,

their heads and tails missing,

gaping rents where their stomachs once were,

leg muscles tensed visibly;

severed necks poke into gut cavities;

hundreds of paws hang in a grisly reach towards the bloody floor.

According to their tags,

they’re four days dead.’

“These are quite young ones, heads cut off quite low,” Pearson says, pointing to a nub of spine that’s jutting out just above the shoulder.

“Most of them are cut too far back.” To decapitate in this way requires significantly more effort than using the traditional method, with a slice directly beloiw the jawline. It also makes bad financial sense to remove most of the neck , as harvesters are paid by weight. Proof, claim the activists, that an illegal shot in the jaw or neck has been covered up.

‘Pearson points to the floor. “They’re bringing in new carcasses and hanging them above the floor, which has blood from old carcasses. Blood is a Petri dish for disease and contamination. This is a major breach of any export abattoir standards.” he points to a small grey kangaroo that is caked elbow to paw in blood and dirt. “That’s from the evisceration,” he says. That’s all supposed to fall to the ground. And don’t forget, these would have been on the back [of a ute] for four, five, six hours, and it would have been 20 degrees. When you consider this is export meat…Uh-oh…”

Besides Mitchell, the roo rapers store their roo chillers at Charleville, Augathella and Blackall. The practice in outback Queensland is widespread.

To struggling towns in the outback like Mitchell, kangaroo meat is big business. “The Kangaroo Industry Industry Association of Australia says theirs is a business worth $270 million a year that directly employs about 4000 people” many in remote areas.”

[Source: Sydney Morning Herald, Good Weekend magazine, 20090523]

.
AusHunt, a website dedicated to hunting in Australia and it’s hunters, advocates:

“Kangaroo shooting is a unique job and many people are involved in one way or another in Australia’s kangaroo industry. My advice for the wannabe ‘roo shooter? You’ll need to make a few phone calls to chiller-box operators in various rural centers to evaluate the impact another ‘roo shooter would have there. Then decide on a location.

Before doing anything, take a week off work and go out with a qualified, professional ‘roo shooter and see what is actually involved.

Australia’s kangaroo industry is one of the only jobs in the world where a person can legally shoot wild animals full-time for a living.

Kangaroo shooting is a tough life with long hours, and a certain danger element. Depending on weather conditions (wind, rain), phases of the moon and drought, the kangaroo shooter may have a good or bad night. It can be a very irregular income earner.

Many shooters struggle to make money, some make a living, and a few make good profits of A$100,000/annum +. Dedication is the name of the game …. going out night after night and avoiding the temptations of the local pub. The upside is that the shooter is very independent and can lead an exciting outdoors life, totally using his wits, determination and shooting prowess to make money.

Okay, you like what you see and you’ve done your courses. Move to the rural center that you have selected and get a day job there, whether it be pumping gas or whatever. Then, start looking around for properties on which to shoot and start off by shooting week-ends. See how you go, then move on to fulltime when you know that you can make money. Good luck!”

.

‘Kangaroo harvesting under the spotlight’

Animal welfare activists are hoping public outrage over the slaughter of cattle in Indonesia can be redirected towards a new target – the commercial harvest of kangaroos. But activists’ involvement with research at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS), has sparked a major scientific blue.

A year ago, animal welfare group Voiceless established THINKK at UTS, specifically to oppose the commercial kangaroo harvest. The unit’s lead scientist, ecologist Dr Dror Ben-Ami, says a lot of information about the kangaroo industry is misrepresented and not researched thoroughly.

This year, the national quota for the commercial harvest of kangaroos is set at around 3.7 million animals, but Dr Ben-Ami fears the real toll may be much higher.

“We estimate that up to a million dependent young are killed inhumanely every year as a result of the kangaroo industry,” he said.

“Those numbers come from industry statistics, in the sense of how many females are killed every year, and from behavioural reproductive ecology knowledge about how many young each female will have.”

There are in fact no industry figures on how many joeys are killed. Their main protection is the commercial shooters licence, which bans the hunting of females with dependent young.

Professor Mike Archer, the dean of science at the University of New South Wales (UNSW), says shooters are aware female kangaroos may be carrying joeys.

“There is an effort made by the shooters. They’re aware of this issue,” he said. He has raised questions about the research being done by THINKK.

“If a group like that were actually based in my university, in the University of New South Wales, we would be having a very serious think about whether they actually belong there,” he said.

“If they publish their own papers, refereed their papers themselves, didn’t quote real experts in the field, we would be very uncomfortable if they were operating in UNSW.”

.

Hygiene fears

Adult kangaroos are shot by night and driven to chillers the next day for processing, leading to another of THINKK’s major concerns – the hygiene of the meat.

In early 2009, Animal Liberation collected samples from unlocked outback chillers, which tested positive for E. coli and salmonella. Several months later, major export destination Russia slapped a ban on kangaroo meat, citing contamination fears.

“If one ate kangaroo meat with high levels of E. coli, you’d have a upset stomach – that would be the case with most people,” Dr Ben-Ami said.

Animal Liberation went on to set up new lab tests of supermarket meat. Dr Ben-Ami says the findings are concerning.

“The results have shown very high levels of E. coli, above alert levels of 1,000 colony-forming units and also a couple of samples came back positive for salmonella,” he said.

There are hundreds of different kinds of E. coli, but only some can be toxic. Animal Liberation’s tests did not establish whether the E. coli found in the kangaroo meat was dangerous.

But UNSW researcher Rosie Cooney says Dr Ben-Ami’s concerns about the contamination of kangaroo meat are overstated.

“A large study done some years ago that looked at over 200,000 carcasses found in fact that the rates of rejection for contamination of kangaroo carcasses were actually considerably less than those for sheep,” she said.
Science ‘under siege’

Dr Cooney and her colleagues believe when it comes to the commercial harvest of kangaroos, the science is now under siege. This has spurred them into action, with a national group of scientists about to publish a critique of THINKK’s claims.

This group says the research proves there is great environmental benefit in encouraging farmers to harvest kangaroos for profit.

“They’re then going to want to value those animals, keep them on their land and importantly, maintain the habitat, the native vegetation, for those creatures as well,” she said.

Dr Ben-Ami says his critics should “write back and engage in academic dialogue, rather than smearing”.

THINKK has today released a new paper arguing against the kangaroo harvest on animal welfare grounds. Their key claim is that that shooters are missing the mark and joeys are being left to die.

[Read Paper]

“We’re taking a native animal out of its natural habitat in great numbers every year and thinking that that has no ramifications, and I think that’s absurd,” he said.

With both sides claiming the science is on their side, the challenge for animal welfare groups is to get kangaroos off the menu.

[Source: ‘Welfare Activists Target Kangaroo Industry‘, by Sarah Dingle and staff, 20110713, ABC Western Queensland, ^http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-13/welfare-activists-target-kangaroo-industry/2793878/?site=westqld, accessed 20111025]

.

Would you eat this animal?

Natural resources are at the heart of the booming Australian economy. In particular, the country’s success in selling these economic growth goodies to a ravenous China has transformed the Aussie economy.

China is today Australia’s largest trading partner, buying up iron ore, coal, natural gas, and other industrial minerals to the tune of $55.2 billion a year — or more than 20 percent of Australia’s total exports. So it’s not too surprising that some entrepreneurial Australians want to add another natural resource to that growing list: kangaroo meat. Australia is crawling with the creatures. And China is apparently hungry for them.That’s the plan, anyway, according to this fine feature story from Matt Siegel in the New York Times.“The Chinese have a strong culinary tradition in using wild foods, not just meat, but a wide range of wild foods called yaemei in Cantonese and yewei in Mandarin,” John Kelly, executive director of the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, a lobbying group, told Siegel. “Kangaroo will to a large extent just slot right into that existing tradition in much the same way it has in the European markets.”

China sent a government delegation to Australia last December to investigate the health and sanitary conditions of kangaroo producers, the New York Times reports.

And not without reason. Kangaroo meat has come under increasing scrutiny following an E. coli outbreak in 2009, which led to a ban from kangaroo-scarfing Russia. The health scare also triggered a collapse of kangaroo meat exports, which tumbled from $38.4 million in 2008 to just $12.3 million last year.

But the new plan to sell kanga-meat to China comes with other challenges. First off, kanga meat is a hard sell — even to Australians. According to a 2008 study cited by the New York Times, just 14.5 percent of Australians have “knowingly” eaten kangaroo meat, versus the 80 percent who eat beef.

The problem? Kangaroo meat has been commonly used as pet food and as skins for clothing. Moreover, many Aussies view the country’s 25 million roos —who outnumber the 23 million human Australians — as large, destructive, and sometimes dangerous pests.

But the bigger challenge might be taste.

“It’s gamey — think beef plus arm pit,” says Freya Petersen, GlobalPost’s Breaking News Editor and our resident Australian staffer. “It needs to be cooked through but not over-cooked.”

“To me, it smells like pet food because we used to feed it to our dog and cat,” she adds.

Environmentalists and animal rights groups are also worried about the plan.

Australia’s kangaroo population “can’t even deal with the domestic and European consumption,” Nikki Sutterby of the Australian Society for Kangaroos told the New York Times. “How would it deal with a country as large as China starting to eat kangaroo meat?”

The kanga-meat crowd down under, however, remains undeterred.

“I’d expect us to be putting product into China at some time this year,” Kelly told the New York Times, adding that he expected China “at some stage to be a larger market than Russia ever was.”

[Source: ‘Would you eat thsi animal?’, by Thomas Mucha, 20110415, ^http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/macro/kangaroo-australia-china]

.

‘It sure ain’t Easy being Green! About the Kangaroo Coalition coordinator!’

by John Watson, Spectator News Magazine

‘Pat O’Brien became a greenie, and activist, in Condobolin 35 years ago when he saw kangaroos herded together, shot and clubbed to death. Until that moment, he had been “normal”.

The meatworker, who was working his way around Australia with his wife and three kids, did not think about the environment, probably dropped paper on the ground and just lived his own life. However, because of that sight of kangaroos being slaughtered, he has spent the next 35 years fighting for animals and the environment….’

Meanwhile, the Queensland Government tries to legitimise wildlife poaching by using euphemistic language…’The Department’s Commercial Macropod Management Program administers the commerical harvest of macropods in Queensland.’

^http://www.derm.qld.gov.au/wildlife-ecosystems/wildlife/wildlife_permits_and_licences/kangaroo_harvesting.html

‘It’s a poor farm that can’t sustain a few kangaroos.’

.

Tags: Anna Bligh, Charleville, E. coli, export for human consumption in fancy restaurant, kanga meat, Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, kangaroo meat, kangaroo meat hygiene, kangaroo pet food, kangaroo poaching, kangaroo slaughter trade, Mitchell, Queensland, Rolf Harris, roo raper, roo shooter, Russian kangaroo meat, THINKK, Warrego Highway, wildlife poaching
Posted in Kangaroos and Macropods, Threats from Poaching and Poisoning | No Comments »

Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg

Drop bear task force poisoning Tasmania

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

The following article was initially posted by Tigerquoll as a comment on the Tasmanian Times 20100202:

.

1080 ‘blue carrots’

.

Six years ago, the Tasmanian Greens tabled their Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals (Control of Use) Amendment (Ban 1080) Bill 2004 to ban the use of 1080 poison (sodium monofluoroacetate) against native wildlife. But it excluded “persons directly employed with the Fox Task Force, up until the period ending 1 October 2006.”

‘Fox Task Force‘ …what a scam! Talk about dodgy jobs for mates at DPI. All they come up with is shit. It could be Drop Bear shit! They may as well be called it the Drop Bear Task Force and dress ’em up in black special forces attire and give ’em paint guns.

1080 must be banned in Tasmania outright including this fraudulent drop bear mob. I’d like to see an FOI on how much the taxpayer has funded them since they were set up. $10 million? We could have found a cure for the Devil’s face tumor or housed hundreds of homeless youth in Tasmania by now.

Tasmania’s “Department of Primary Industries and Water is the only importer of 1080 into Tasmania and only authorised officers of the Department handle the poison.” So the 1080 buck stps with DPI. DPI’s head needs to show cause, whoever the latest ‘acting’ secretary is! DPI has had so many name changes, ministers and bosses, DPI staff must be running the show. GM Environment was Warren Jones in October, so he can take the can, unless he’s been sacked as well.

According to DPI’s latest annual report, its Environment branch has a mission “to ensure best practice in environmental management and pollution control”…blah blah blah.

Well best practice in environmental management is exercising the precautionary principle, which in lay terms means if you’re not sure don’t intervene. Well ban 1080 until you can deliver a fox to the Hobart Town Hall!

.

Tasmanian native Pademelons killed by 1080 poison

Source: http://www.redbubble.com/people/cradlemountain/art/3160948-why-is-1080-poison-not-good-for-tasmania-and-the-world

.

‘By the year 2000, the Tasmanian Government poisoned 30 million native animals by allowing forest and farming industries to kill all marsupials (other species were sacrificed along with the slaughter).
Here I was collecting bodies and found nine different species affected, dead. This little female wallaby was clasping onto grass and had made a circle in the ground while dying in pain. I could not get the grass out of her little paws.’

A live and healthy native Tasmanian Pademelon

.

1080 is immoral

1080 (sodium monofluroacetate) is a cruel and indiscriminate poison used to ‘remove’ unwanted populations of animals.

Banned in most countries, 1080 is still used liberally throughout Australia and New Zealand to control so-called ‘pest’ species, and reduce ‘browsing damage’ caused by native animals on private land. Its use is indiscriminate, which means that it kills not just the target feral animals but every animal in the area that eats off the forest floor.

1080 poison is a slow killer. When ingested (usually through baited food) the animal suffers a prolonged and horrific death. Herbivores take the longest to die – up to 44hrs, while carnivores can take up to 21hrs before finally succumbing to final effects of the poison. The speed of death is dependent on the rate of the animals metabolism.

.

A Slow & Horrific Death

Witnesses to the deaths of herbivorous animals, such as macropods, have reported:

“Affected wallabies were sometimes observed sitting hunched up, with heads held shakily just above the ground. Generally they appeared non-alert and ‘sick’, with shivering or shaking forelimbs and unsteady balance. Most individuals then experience convulsions, falling to the ground and lying on their backs and sides, kicking and making running motions with their hind legs before dying. Many individuals also ejaculated shortly before death, and, with others, exuded a white froth from their nostrils and mouth.”

Carnivorous animals such as dingoes, dogs, foxes, and cats become very agitated, as they tremble, convulse and vomit.”

[Source: ‘The World League for Protection of Animals’, ^http://wlpa.org/1080_poison.htm]

.

Also, 1080 is indiscriminate, it kills all carnivores including Devils, and endangered quolls and dogs.

“Under state poisons legislation, 1080 is a Schedule 7 poison and is available only to specialised or authorised users who have the skills necessary to handle it safely. Under the Agricultural and Veterinary Chemicals Code Regulations 1995, products containing 1080 are also declared to be ‘Restricted Chemical Products’. As such, the products can only be supplied to or used by ‘authorised person(s)’. Individual states set the authorisation criteria taking the APVMA’s and state regulatory requirements into account.

Despite these regulations, poisoning of non-target wildlife and domestic pets is common and farm animal species can also be at risk. In NSW, an estimated 14,000 baits are laid per Rural Land Protection Board per annum, and 2002-2003 figures on 1080 use released by the Tasmanian Government indicated Forestry Tasmania used 23 per cent, farmers 47 per cent, and private forestry 30 per cent. In the same year, the Tasmanian Government also released statistics stating that 97,000 wallabies and brushtail possums had been poisoned by 1080, primarily through baiting programs aimed at targeting browsing and grazing native animals as part of forestry management. Phasing out of 1080 in Tasmanian forests has since commenced.

Canines are particularly susceptible to 1080 and the lethal dose for dogs has been calculated at 0.05mg/kg. Once consumed, it is rapidly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract, impairing cellular respiration through disruption of the citric acid cycle with resultant CNS anoxia and cardiovascular disturbance. 1080 can also be absorbed from the respiratory tract and through cuts and abrasions.

1080 has no specific antidote and even in animals treated symptomatically, is usually fatal.”

[Source: ‘The Veterinarian’, ^http://www.theveterinarian.com.au/features/article685.asp]

.

1080 poison is as vicious as laying 19th Century steel jaw traps around Hobart parks, or giving kids air rifles to play with at school.

It is incumbent on the public’s trust in the ethics and responsibility of the Tasmanian Government’s Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment (etc) to show proof of foxes or else ban 1080 poison outright across Tasmania.

Else it will be some perturbed fox myth that ends up killing Tasmania’s devils, quolls, wallabies, the forester kangaroo, just like the 19th Century myth that Thylacene’s killed farmers’ sheep so deserving their redneck extinction.

The DPI always claims recent physical evidence of foxes. If so, then show recent proof to the public, not old specimen carcasses from a zoo. Show the Tasmanian public also independent zoological proof that using 1080 cannot harm non-target species!

.

Victoria following Tasmania’s backward example

‘Authorised persons in Victoria can now purchase 1080 pest animal bait products from accredited retailers or licensed perishable bait manufacturers.

Two categories of 1080 pest animal bait products are now available in Victoria:

Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA) registered 1080 pest animal bait products (‘shelf-stable bait’) such as dry oats and dried meat baits. Retailers of these baits must have Agsafe Guardian 1080 accreditation.

Perishable 1080 pest animal bait products (‘fresh’ bait) such as carrot and liver, manufactured using 1080 aqueous solution registered with the APVMA for that purpose. These bait products are not registered with the APVMA but are supplied under an APVMA permit. The manufacturer of these bait products is also the retailer. These persons must meet specific training and accreditation requirements and be licensed by the Department of Human Services (DHS).

In order to purchase 1080 pest animal bait products you need to complete a Course in Minimising the Risks in the Use of 1080 Pest Animal Bait Products for Vertebrate Pest Control and obtain a 1080 endorsement to your Agricultural Chemical User Permit (ACUP).

These changes are designed to make it easier for you to purchase 1080 pest animal bait products. They enable users to purchase 1080 pest animal bait products from local accredited retailers during normal business hours, enable a greater range of 1080 pest animal bait products to become available to users, and make the manufacture, supply and use of 1080 pest animal bait products safer.’

[Source: ^http://dpi.vic.gov.au/agriculture/farming-management/chemical-use/agricultural-chemical-use/bait-system, accessed 20111025]

.

South Australia following Tasmania’s backward example

‘The Controlled Substances (Poisons) Regulations,1996 allows land owners access to 1080 baits (sodium fluoroacetate) for the control of rabbits, foxes and dingoes/ wild dogs on their own property.

The current Label, Directions for Use and Material Safety Data Sheet are reproduced here for each bait product.

The Directions for Use include the following documents:

Record of notification of neighbours before commencement of baiting programs
Checklist to be used when a person first receives baits
Poison laid sign design

Authorisation to use the baits requires the land owner (or their agent nominated in writing) to sign an Approval to Possess 1080 Bait form supplied by a Natural Resources Management officer. Non-compliance with the Directions for Use is an offence under the Controlled Substances Act, 1984 and the Agricultural and Veterinary Products (Control of Use) Act, 2002.

For information on the supply and possession of 1080 bait, contact the Environmental Health Branch, Department of Health on (08) 8226 7117 or (08) 8226 7137.

For information or advice on suspected cases of misuse of 1080 bait products or to report that non-target animals may have been poisoned by 1080, contact PIRSA Biosecurity – Rural Chemicals on (08) 8226 0528.

[Source: ^http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/biosecuritysa/nrm_biosecurity/pest_animal/1080_use_in_sa, accessed 20111025]

.

Tags: 1080 poison, DPI, Fox Task Force, sodium monofluoroacetate, Tasmania's "Department of Primary Industries and Water, Tasmanian Pademelon
Posted in Kangaroos and Macropods, Tasmania (AU), Threats from Poaching and Poisoning, Threats to Wild Tasmania | No Comments »

Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg

Ted Baillieu commissioning wildlife murder?

Thursday, September 15th, 2011

The following article was published on CanDoBetter.net today (20110915) by wildlife ecologist and biologist, Hans Brunner, under the title: ‘A planned slaughter of endangered wildlife’

.

The Victorian Government plans to drop 1080 poison bait from an aircraft into forests could result in the extinction of the already critically endangered Spotted-tailed Quoll.

The purpose of this antiquated and vandalistic method is to poison wild dogs. Why is the Victorian Government using old, dangerous methods? This is like re-introducing the use of DDT. It is now a double disaster; all Ted Baillieu has to do now is to aerial bait to kill wild dogs in order to protect the cattle he allowed to go back into the mountains! Spot-tailed quolls and other dasyurids are meat eaters as well as some species of possums, reptiles, bandicoots and birds. They would be all at a serious risk of being poisoned. Further more, most of this bait would be wasted because of the dogs not being able to find them and this is where non-target animals will rather find and eat them. Baits have therefore to be placed only in places which dogs frequently use, along forest tracks.

More effective methods

There is a well researched and efficient method for the poisoning of wild dogs and foxes. It is a target specific bait station system which is successfully used throughout Victoria. Bait stations are placed along forest tracks where activities of dogs are observed.
A bait station consists of a mound of soil about 20 cm high and one meter in diameter. An un poisoned bait (free feed) is buried in the center of the mound about 10cm deep with some SFE lure placed on top. When the bait has been dug up and eaten, a check is made, with some experience, to assess whether a dog or fox took the bait. If satisfied that a target species took the bait it can be replaced with a poison bait. If it appears that a quoll or an other non-target animal may have taken the free feed bait, continue free feeding that station to keep the quoll and others away from a poison station (about 2 km away) or eliminate that station.

This is the only responsible way to poison dogs and foxes. Even better, it will be of great benefit to not only the quolls by removing the competition by dogs and foxes of their natural prey species, but also for the survival of Kangaroos, wallabies, bandicoots, possums, echidnas etc.

Biologist’s experience of alternatives

I have researched and tested this system in 700 square km of forest between Gembrook and Neerim and found it most effective and efficient. I have also introduced it in NSW National Parks where it was recognized as “The dog baiting stations proposed by Hans are the best practical suggestion to date. With the implementation of the bait stations, properly maintained and serviced at the appropriate times, there would appear to be NO reason to allow the continued use of aerial baiting” and, “Poisoning using the buried bait technique is still proving extremely target specific, with dogs and foxes being the only species killed”.

Do it the right way and wildlife return

Barbara Triggs, an eminent naturalist stated after poisoning wild dogs and foxes and using the bait station system on her property in Croajingolong National Park, East Gippsland:

“At no time has there been any evidence that a bait has been taken by a non-target animal. In the past year the numbers of native animals seen on the property have increased startlingly. The Red-necked Wallabies, who’s group was here in low numbers, have increased markedly from five individuals to now at least fourteen. The most surprising increase has been in the population of Long-nosed Bandicoots. The Dusky Antechinus, Swamp Rats, Water Rats, Sugar Gliders and several species of ground-nesting birds and also species of owls are much more in evidence than ever before.”

With all this evidence, this non specific and irresponsible aerial baiting must be immediately stopped.’

Hans Brunner
Wildlife biologist
Sept 2011

Tags: 1080 poison, spotted-tailed quoll, Ted Ballieu, tigerquoll, Victoria, wild dog poisoning
Posted in Gippsland (AU), Quolls, Threats from Poaching and Poisoning | No Comments »

Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg

Elephants still poached for asian trinkets

Monday, August 29th, 2011

[The following article was initially published by Tigerquoll on CandoBetter.net on 20090730 under title ‘African Elephants – still slaughtered for tusk (‘ivory’) trinkets by backward Japanese and Chinese‘, with some modifications]

The magnificent African Bush Elephant bull (male) walking tall in its native savannah homeland

Out of Victorian colonial exploits of the 19th Century, elephant tusks could be found butchered and refined into expensive goods, notably billiard balls, piano keys, Scottish bagpipes, garment buttons, letter openers and for many ornamental items otherwise considered mere ‘trinkets’.

After the elephant tusk (‘ivory’) trade had decimated the African Elephant population from 1.3 million to 625,000, finally in 1989 the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) imposed a ban on this international elephant tusk (ivory) trade.
Ten years on, Zimbabwean dictator, Robert Mugabe, lifted the ban along with Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa and legalised the sale of elephant tusks from elephants they claimed (a) had died naturally or (b) been shot because they were violently aggressive or for ‘problem-animal’ control. In 1999, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) authorized an auction of 50 tons of elephant tusks (ivory) from these four countries to the value of USD$5 million. Notably, the demand for elephant has been driven outside the African continent, in this episode mainly by Japan.

One could find a comparable solution for controlling Robert Mugabe…

Tool of the Willing

(for just one day hire, …’our troubles there would be over very quickly’.)

~ borrowed from Colonel Walter E. Kurtz.

.

In 2008, China was also given permission to become a licensed buyer of elephant tusks (ivory) and this followed 108 tons of elephant tusks (ivory) being auctioned from these same four African countries, representing the death of over 10,000 African elephants.

“The growing demand for elephant tusks (ivory) has increased black market prices from $200 per kilo to $850 per kilo in the past four years thus creating a big financial incentive for poachers. Michael Wamithi, program director for International Fund for Animal Welfare’s global elephants program, and former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, declared: “An estimated 20,000 elephants are slaughtered annually for the trade in their tusks. Many African elephant range states clearly do not have the capacity or resources to combat these massive attacks on their countries’ wildlife heritage and the burgeoning markets in China are only fuelling these attacks.”

The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), which exposes environmental crimes, said CITES had ignored appeals from other African nations not to increase pressures on their elephant populations which were already struggling with wars, instability, droughts and poverty. EIA chairman Allan Thornton said:

“Responsibility for the poaching of 20,000 elephants in Africa each year will now lie with those who supported China obtaining legal ivory trade even though they continue to be the world’s biggest destination for poached ivory.”

This elephant tusk (ivory) carving (photo) is a gift from China presented to the United Nations in 1974.

It depicts the Chengtu-Kunming railway, which was opened to traffic in 1970.

The sculpture was carved from eight elephant tusks. In elephant terms, four mature bull elephants were killed for this elaborate trinket.
One wonders whether the United Nations is still pleased with its eight bull elephant tusk trophy (shot and hacked off from a bull elephant like that above)?

.

Chinese, Japanese and Thais still Elephant Poaching in Africa

China and Japan bought 108 tonnes of ivory in another “one-off” sale in November 2008 from Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. At the time the idea was that these legal ivory sales may depress the price, thereby removing poaching pressure, an idea supported by both Traffic and WWF.

China’s increased involvement in infrastructure projects in Africa and the purchase of natural resources has alarmed many conservationists who fear the extraction of wildlife body parts is increasing. Since China was given “approved buyer” status by CITES, the smuggling of ivory seems to have increased alarmingly. Although, WWF and Traffic who supported the China sale, describe the increase in illegal ivory trade a possible “coincidence” others are less cautious. Chinese nationals working in Africa have been caught smuggling ivory in many African countries, with at least ten arrested at Kenyan airports in 2009. In many African countries domestic markets have grown, providing easy access to ivory, although the Asian ivory syndicates are most destructive buying and shipping tonnes at a time.

Contrary to the advice of CITES that prices may be depressed, and those that supported the sale of stockpiles in 2008, the price of ivory in China has greatly increased. Some believe this may be due to deliberate price fixing by those who bought the stockpile, echoing the warnings from the Japan Wildlife Conservation Society on price-fixing after sales to Japan in 1997, and monopoly given to traders who bought stockpiles from Burundi and Singapore in the 1980s. It may also be due to the exploding number of Chinese able to purchase luxury goods.

Despite arguments prevailing on the ivory trade for the last thirty years through CITES, there is one fact that virtually all informed parties now agree upon: poaching of African elephants is now seriously on the increase.’

.

‘Shopping habits of China’s ‘suddenly wealthy’

[Source: by Rose Gamble, freelance journalist, FT.com, 20090821, ^http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/9271a266-8d21-11de-a540-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1WPkaKde6, accessed 20110829]

Ivory:

‘For more than 7,000 years, Chinese artisans have been crafting elephant ivory. Favoured by the Imperial household as far back as the Qing dynasty (1680), ivory has an illustrious reputation and an association with the wealthy and elite. But in 1989, the trading of ivory was banned worldwide through the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), after more than half of Africa’s 1.3 million elephants were poached in a single decade. And yet, with a carving trade established in antiquity and a burgeoning middle class who, for the first time, can afford to buy ivory, China remains its biggest importer.

As Asian elephant herds dwindle, African elephants have become the only source of ivory.

In late 2008, Cites authorities allowed China to bid with Japan for tusks from official stockpiles – consisting of ivory collected from elephants that had died a natural death – in four southern African countries. In an open declaration of a continuing demand, 12 Chinese traders bought 62 tonnes at an average price of $144 per kilo. Since this legal purchase, more than 11 tonnes of illegal African ivory have been impounded en route to China.

Elephant poaching largely takes place in central Africa, where poverty and political instability are rife. Chronic unemployment, the availability of firearms and corruption all facilitate the illegal ivory trade. These regions are also home to unregulated domestic ivory markets, where carved items are bought and sold. According to ivory expert Esmond Martin, the majority of buyers are Chinese. In a scramble for Africa’s minerals and resources, the continent has seen a recent influx of Chinese workers – a presence that is visibly reflected in the illegal retailing of ivory. On a recent trip to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Martin recorded 1,433 items of ivory openly displayed in the city’s main streets and central market. Among these were 149 pairs of freshly carved ivory chopsticks, selling for $16 each – in sharp contrast to a Chinese retail price of $139 – and signature stamps and jewellery. All of these items were small enough to potentially smuggle through customs.

Martin had previously estimated that 4,900 to 12,000 elephants from central Africa were killed each year to supply tusks to the craftsmen of Africa, China and Thailand.

Conservationists are deeply concerned. According to Barbara Maas, CEO of Care for the Wild International: “With the number of Chinese nationals resident in Africa rising, and poaching on the increase, the frontline between supply and demand for ivory is now perilously close, with a disastrous outcome for elephants.”

.

..

‘Campaigners’ fear for elephants, and their own credibility’

[Source: The Economist, 20080717, ^http://www.economist.com/node/11751304 ]

‘Nobody can deny that China’s black market was rampant until recently. In a report to the UN leaked by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a campaigning group, this month, Chinese officials admitted that between 1991 and 2002 they had lost sight of 121 tonnes of ivory, the equivalent of the tusks from 11,000 elephants.

Is China observing the CITES rules now? A brief visit to China in 2007 by inspectors from the CITES secretariat suggested that things had improved: they said that ivory was becoming harder to find, though they came across a shop in the city of Xi’an with ivory carvings of dubious provenance. A bigger investigation was carried out by TRAFFIC, an independent British-based group that monitors wildlife trade. After studying 10,000 shops between 2006 and 2008, it reported a progressive decline in the availability of illegal ivory. This had coincided with greater police vigilance.

The idea that China is cleaning up its act got another boost in March, when over 750kg (1,650lb) of raw ivory was seized in Guangxi Province. As CITES notes, the penalties for illegal trading include life imprisonment and death. But the EIA, which uses undercover methods to probe the trade, says things are not as good as they seem; in 2007 its researchers found a roomful of illegal ivory, including an uncut tusk, for sale in the city of Dalian. Last month they made a small find in Gansu province.

A more interesting question is how the legal sales now in prospect will affect the black market. A fresh supply of legal ivory may depress the price, and reduce the incentive to poach. TRAFFIC notes that after a legal auction in 1999, the price fell; this led to a decline in poaching over five years. For doctrinaire types, who oppose all trade in ivory, the forthcoming sale is not just a challenge to endangered animals; it could be a threat to the credibility of their best-loved arguments.’

.

‘Data shows illegal ivory trade on rise’

[Source: World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Cambridge, UK, 20091116, ^http://wwf.panda.org/wwf_news/?uNewsID=180702, accessed 20110829]

‘The illicit trade in ivory, which has been increasing in volume since 2004, moved sharply upward in 2009, according to the latest analysis of seizure data in the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS).

ETIS, one of the two monitoring systems for elephants under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) but managed by TRAFFIC, holds the world’s largest collection of elephant product seizure records.

The analysis, undertaken in advance of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP15) to CITES, was based upon 14,364 elephant product seizure records from 85 countries or territories since 1989, nearly 2,000 more records than the previous analysis, in 2007.

The remarkable surge in 2009 reflects a series of large-scale ivory seizure events that suggest increased involvement of organized crime syndicates in the trade, connecting African source countries with Asian end-use markets. The ETIS data indicate that such syndicates have become stronger and more active over the last decade.

There continues to be a highly significant correlation between large-scale domestic ivory markets in Asia and Africa and poor law enforcement, suggesting that illicit ivory trade flows typically follow a path to destinations where law enforcement is weak and markets function with little regulatory impediment.

Indeed, the rise in illicit trade in ivory indicates that implementation of a CITES “action plan for the control of trade in African elephant ivory,” the Convention’s principal vehicle for closing such unregulated and illicit domestic markets in Africa and Asia, has failed to drive any significant change over the last five years.

The ETIS analysis identifies Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Thailand as the three countries most heavily implicated in the global illicit ivory trade. Illegal trade involving each of these nations has been repeatedly singled out for priority attention since the first assessment in 2002, but they continue to feature as critical hotspots in the trade as sources, entrêpots and consumers of ivory.

Another nine countries and territories—Cameroon, Gabon and Mozambique in Africa and Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam in Asia—were also identified as important nodes in the illicit ivory trade.

China, which along with Japan was an approved destination of the legal, CITES-sanctioned one-off ivory sale in 2008, faces a persistent illegal trade challenge from Chinese nationals now based in Africa. Ongoing evidence highlights widespread involvement of overseas Chinese in the illicit procurement of ivory, a problem that needs to be addressed through an aggressive outreach and awareness initiative directed at Chinese communities living abroad.

The results are less clear-cut concerning the impacts of the CITES approved one-off ivory sales in 1999 and 2008.

Following the first such sale, in June 1999, there was a progressive decline in the illicit trade in ivory for five years, with no evidence to suggest that the sale had resulted in an increase in the illicit ivory trade globally.

After the second CITES-approved ivory sale, in late 2008, the results are unclear as to whether it has stimulated increase demand or whether it has simply coincided with an increase in supply that was already underway over the last four years. The collection of more data over an extended time period will throw further light on this vital issue.’

The full ETIS report can be downloaded from the CITES website as document at ^http://www.cites.org/common/cop/15/doc/E15-44-01A.pdf

[Read More]

.

‘China Fuels East African Elephant Poaching’

[Source: Damian Robin, Epoch Times, 20100330, ^http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/32389/, accessed 20110829]

China’s influence in East Africa is fueling an upsurge in elephant poaching, gunrunning, and corruption according to a report on U.K. television Friday. A Channel 4 reporter spoke to people in villages and cities, wildlife managers, rangers, government officials, and illegal ivory sellers in Kenya and Tanzania—all of whom said China is the main buyer of banned ivory.

Filmed secretly, sellers told the journalist from Unreported World that during a presidential visit from Chinese Communist Party leader Hu Jintao in 2009, two hundred kilos of ivory was bought by Chinese diplomats and taken out of Tanzania.
The sellers did not say if Hu knew of the trade, but did say that a prominent diplomat from the Chinese Embassy frequently bought large amounts of ivory from them.
Kooky Gorman owns a wildlife park in Kenya. Accompanied by armed rangers, she took the reporter to many spots in her park, where elephant carcasses rotted, their heads split open to make it easy to saw the tusks off.
Many hides showed multiple bullet holes. The lead ranger said the killers had used AK47 automatic weapons to spray herds. The shootings were indiscriminate, killing young and old.

Gorman said the weapons were bought from neighboring Somalia where the civil war has continued since 1991.
The intensity of the poaching has been increasing for the past two years. In 2007 six elephants were poached from her park. In 2008, twenty-eight were poached. Fifty-seven were poached in 2009.

She says there is a threat of elephant extinction.

The Kenya Wildlife Service has strong rooms full of tusks and carved ivory taken during raids and confiscated at Nairobi airport. It has about 65 tons to 70 tons estimated at $10 million.
The U.N. recently rejected Zambia and Tanzania’s request to hold a one-off sale for their ivory stockpile, valued of approximately $15 million.

Since trade in ivory was stopped in 1989, some countries have been allowed to do a small amount of business in ivory if they have good conservation measures. Zambia and Tanzania are currently prohibited from any trade in ivory. The International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) annual meeting in Doha disregarded arguments that the sale could help police wildlife parks and stop the burden of protecting the horde of ivory.

Selous Game Reserve in Tanzania has 40,000 elephants.

On the TV program, a police informant who lived nearby in a village known for its illegal ivory deals said armed groups of 30 often came from Dara Salam in Senegal to take back ivory in 440-to-660-pound batches. (An average tusk weighs about 4.4 pounds.)

The informant, whose face was not shown for fear of reprisals, had had his house burned down recently.

Another man, who did not want to be identified as he had received death threats, was a safari operator who brings tourists to the Selous Reserve. “I think the wildlife department knows exactly what’s going on here,” he said. “There are some members of the games department who are poaching to supplement their pay and feed their families.”

He said he thinks movers are coming from China and the Far East to take bones and that they are in collusion with local authorities.

He said they could not get through the 15 to 20 policed roadblocks without help from “some very well-placed people.”

One illegal dealer said he had friends in airport security. “It’s no problem with money,” he told the reporter. “If you have money, it’s easy.”

There is a small industry carving the poached ivory for the East Asian trade. “Many people from China come and buy,” he said. There is a market for trinkets, seals, and chopsticks.

Chinese regime officials told Unreported World that they are against the illegal ivory trade and that Chinese diplomats did not illegally purchase or export ivory by misusing diplomatic immunity in 2009.

Most villagers have stood by while violence around the poaching continues. They felt threatened and were unable to prevent the elephant deaths. Now, many see tourism as the main way they can earn a living, so they are protecting the animals and habitat as much as they can.’

.

‘Ivory Stockpile Sale Rejected by U.N.’

[Source: Peter Valk, The Epoch Times, 20100324, ^http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/31944/, accessed 20110829]

Custom officers display a total of 2.8 tons of ivory on March 1, 2007, a record amount seized in Japan, a top black market destination for elephant tusks.

The U.N.’s Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora rejected Zambia and Tanzania’s request to sell it’s stockpile of ivory.

(AFP/Getty Images)

‘Zambia and Tanzania’s request to hold a one-off sale for their ivory stockpile, valued of approximately $15 million, were rejected during the U.N.’s Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) annual meeting in Doha. The increase of poaching and illegal ivory sales in both countries in 2009 were the main reasons for the rejection.

Since the ivory trade was banned in 1989, there has been an exemption that allows countries that have proven effective in conservation measures to have a small amount of regulated trade in ivory. Currently, Zambia and Tanzania are forbidden to sell ivory.

“It’s crucial that central and western African nations suppress the brazen poaching, mainly fueled by organized crime and illegal ivory markets openly operating within their borders before any further ivory sales take place,” said Sybille Klenzendorf, managing director of Species Conservation at WWF-U.S. in a press release.

According to a report from the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), which keeps track of ivory seizures, there exists a direct relationship between an increase in poaching and poor law enforcement. In the past two years, the number of elephants that were killed as a result of poaching has quadrupled.

Opponents of the ban say that Tanzania ought be allowed to dispose of their ivory stockpile as to avoid spending large sums of money on security and storage.

During the meeting, in which 175 countries participated, some animals were added to the list of protected species. The rise of e-commerce is now believed to be one of the latest and biggest threats to wildlife, as global Internet access has made it increasingly easy to buy and sell illegal wildlife products with little control.

“The transactions kind of come and go and take place before anybody really even knows it, leaving it to the post office to be enforcing this global regime of trade regulation,” Paul Todd, a campaign manager for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (FAW) was reported as saying by ABC news in Australia.

Back in 2005, a FAW investigation reported that in one week alone, over 9,000 live animals or products in five categories of animals were for sale on English-language Web sites, chat rooms and the popular auction site eBay. Some of the live animals found included a gorilla in London, and a Siberian tiger in the U.S. Body parts and products were also commonly found with ivory being common.’

.

An African Elephant herd

(click photo to enlarge)

Elephants are very intelligent, lifelong loyal and have immense family bonds.

A female elephant listens and watches the photographer intently, with her young close to her side.

An elephant mother will protect her calf to her death.

.

Australia’s big ‘game hunter’, Robert Borsak in Zimbabwe (2008)

.

‘Macdonald’s game council thrill killer‘

by Andrew Clennell, State Political Editor, Sydney Morning Herald, 20090721, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/macdonalds-game-council-thrill-killer-20090720-dqui.html]

.

Robert Borsak (on the NSW Government’s Game Council) went to northern Zimbabwe to hunt elephants. On a two-week trip he killed several, including a bull elephant he shot in the head from a distance of six paces.”My reflexes took over as the rifle fired … he went down, as if in slow motion,” writes Mr Borsak in an article entitled Bulls in the Rain posted on the internet. “It was awesome. He did not know what had hit him.”Back in Australia, Mr Borsak has bagged another prize. The big game hunter and former vice-chairman of the Shooters Party is being paid $342 for each sitting day as chairman of the Game Council of NSW, one of 58 quangos which operate under the Primary Industries Minister, Ian Macdonald.

Mr Borsak hopes to run for the Shooters Party at the next election. If successful, he would join a party that now holds the balance of power in the upper house and is holding the Government to ransom after Mr Macdonald failed to negotiate through cabinet the right to shoot in National Parks.It is an example of the kind of interests the embattled Mr Macdonald is accused of helping to protect in some of the committees and statutory bodies he oversees.Mr Borsak is being paid $342 a sitting day for his part in regulating hunting in this state. Conservationists say the Game Council’s only purpose is to win the Shooters Party votes.Last week there were revelations the minister spent close to $150,000 on a wine industry council he set up, chaired by his friend Greg Jones; and that the minister had put other Labor identities – such as union boss Russ Collison and former Labor MPs – on quangos.The Herald learned yesterday Mr Macdonald appointed a friend of 25 years, John Gerathy, the law partner of former Labor deputy prime minister Lionel Bowen, to the wine council and the Homebush motor racing board.

Mr Macdonald is under siege. Yesterday the acting Opposition Leader, Andrew Stoner, referred him to the Independent Commission Against Corruption over claims he gave special treatment to another Labor mate, the former construction union president John Maitland, over granting an exploratory licence for a Hunter Valley mine.

The Premier, Nathan Rees, refused to comment yesterday when asked if the Left assistant secretary Luke Foley, who wants Mr Macdonald’s upper house seat, would be a better cabinet minister than Mr Macdonald.

As for Mr Borsak, he was resentful yesterday that he might be included in a story to do with Mr Macdonald.

The Game Council has received more than $11 million in government funding since 2002 and $3.5 million last year, despite promises from Mr Macdonald it would end up being self-funded.

Mr Borsak said the Game Council was set up in 2002, before Mr Macdonald was minister, and should not be lumped in with other committees as it was a statutory body. He said he was a businessman who received “a grand total of $1368 for last financial year for about 60 days’ work for the council”.

“Why would there be a conflict of interest,” Mr Borsak said, when asked whether his involvement in the Shooters Party might mean he should not be involved in the Game Council. He said of the Zimbabwe hunt: “The fact is I do it [the hunt] and I do it legally and I did it as part of licensed conservation programs. The … tusks belong to the Zimbabwean Government.”

The executive director of the Nature Conservation Council, Cate Faehrmann, said it was time the Game Council’s “activities were thoroughly scrutinised”.

Mr Maddonald’s “aggressive support of the establishment of game reserves and hunting in National Parks is all the more insidious when you realise at least one of the people behind this push likes to kill elephants in his spare time,” she said.

“By pumping millions of dollars into the Game Council, Minister Macdonald is sanctioning bloodsports.”

Mr Stoner called for Mr Macdonald to be sacked. “It seems every day there are more doubts raised about Ian Macdonald … There will be more, so Nathan Rees should do the right thing and sack this minister.”

.

‘The cruelty and corruption of the elephant hunt’

[Source: Sydney Morning Herald, following letters to the editor, 20090722, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/conservation/the-cruelty-and-corruption-of-the-elephant-hunt-20090722-dtb3.html]

.

Letters to the Editor

‘I began hunting as soon as I was old enough to use a rifle. But the photo of Robert Borsak gloating over the body of an elephant he shot in Zimbabwe fills me with disgust (“Macdonald’s game council thrill killer”, July 21).Zimbabwe is one of few African countries to allow this practice. People typically pay about $US20,000-$26,000 ($25,000-$32,000) for this privilege. Bulls are more expensive, presumably because of their tusks. Where does this money go? Here is a hint.
Advertisement: Story continues belowThe BBC reported a decade ago that the government of Robert Mugabe earned US$2.5 million by selling 20 tonnes of elephant tusks, although the ivory trade had been banned. Zimbabwe lies about its elephant population to get around the ban. This practice is probably greater today.As the economy collapsed, the Zimbabwean Army, the key to Mugabe’s survival, cancelled all contracts to supply beef. The Zimbabwean Conservation Task Force reports soldiers have complained the only meat they are given is from elephants. So in addition to the immense pleasure Borsak apparently feels in the senseless destruction of a great creature, he can also take pride in doing his bit to keep Africa’s worst despot in power.’~ Don Moore, Lilyfield

.

‘I loved the juxtaposition of the stories about Robert Borsak, and Sining Wang and Edward Liew (“Don’t have a cow man – it’s got rights”, July 21). Thank heavens for the next generation of intelligent and compassionate thinkers. I hope it is only a matter of time before Wang and Liew can flex their legal muscles against thug shooters such as Borsak. The sooner they are banned from indulging in their cruel and destructive hobbies, the better.’~ Belinda Connolly, Caringbah

.

‘It has been said that people get the politicians they deserve.What does it say about the people of NSW when there is a danger of Robert Borsak standing for a seat in Parliament – a man who admits to the thrill of downing a bull elephant “from a distance of six paces”?’Jill Klopfer, Wahroonga

.

‘So Robert Borsak killed elephants in Zimbabwe “as part of licensed conservation programs”.The corrupt Zimbabwean Government and conservation are complete strangers, as anyone who has anything to do with trying to save what is left of Zimbabwe’s wildlife can tell you.’Colleen Riga, Potts Point

.

‘Robert Borsak says “the tusks belong to the Zimbabwean Government”. No – the tusks belong to the elephant.’Jean-Marc Russ, Darlinghurst

.

‘It comes as no surprise to learn of Ian Macdonald’s patronage of hunters. The minister has shown scant regard for the welfare of animals, as those of us working in animal charities can attest. His $3.5 million for the Game Council compares with the $533,000 in funding he announced in April to be split between the RSPCA, Animal Welfare League, WIRES, Cat Protection Society and the Domestic Animal Birth Control Co-operative Society.The Government opposes Clover Moore’s bill to reduce the suffering of cats and dogs by regulating their sale, and even pleas for an inquiry into the welfare of companion animals have been rejected. A minister who gives priority to working with a hunter who describes shooting an elephant as awesome is hardly likely to care that tens of thousands of cats and dogs are killed annually on his watch.’

Kristina Vesk chief executive, Cat Protection Society of NSW, Newtown

.

– end of article –

Tags: African Elephant, Chinese illicit ivory trade, cites, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Environmental Investigation Agency, illegal ivory trade, Ivory trafficking, ivory trinkets, Japanese illicit ivory trade, Robert Mugabe, Selous Game Reserve, Thai illicit ivory trade, TRAFFIC
Posted in Africa, Elephants, Threats from Poaching and Poisoning | 1 Comment »

Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg

Judge a society by how it treats its animals

Monday, August 29th, 2011

The magnificent tiger in the wild, where it belongs,

free, protected from humanity, protected from human persecution, protected from backward superstition.

A big ask of a pathogenic backward species ~ homo ‘sapiens’?

.

“I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man”

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way it treats its animals.”

~Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948)

By this measure, Indonesian society’s prescription and tolerance of Dhabiha throat slitting slaughter in its abattoirs reflects a society that is barbaric, immoral, uncivilized and backward.

.

Then we have the backward cultural practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM):

‘Diplomat exposed Chinese tiger farm horrors’

[by Jonathan Watts, 20110827, The Age newspaper, borrowed in turn from The (UK) Guardian News & Media, ^http://www.theage.com.au/environment/animals/diplomat-exposed-chinese-tiger-farm-horrors-20110826-1jefp.html, accessed 20110829]

Chinese tormenting a Xiongsen Tiger

.

‘An American diplomat posed as a Korean tourist to investigate a notorious tiger breeding centre in southern China, where he saw animals whipped, made to perform ”marriage processions” and reportedly sold to be used in traditional medicines.As a result of the undercover visit to Xiongsen Tiger and Bear farm, the US government was notified of doubts about China’s conservation efforts, according to a diplomatic cable recently released by WikiLeaks.

Xiongsen Tiger – a pitiful end

The investigation was inspired by a flurry of foreign media reports in 2007 alleging the farm offered tiger meat in its restaurant and tiger bone wine in a shop.

In a cable sent from the Guangzhou US consulate headed ”Devouring Dragon, Disappearing Tigers”, an un-named economics officer said he was initially treated with suspicion by the sales personnel in the facility. But once he convinced them he was Korean, they became eager to do business.

”The staff stated that up to three tour groups of Koreans came a day, numbering more than 30 in each group.The Koreans were among the most enthusiastic purchasers of both the black bear bile and the tiger wine.” The price of the bottles ranged from 80-896 yuan ($12-$134).

Tiger Parts used by in barbaric chinese superstition (TCM)

.

China says it has nearly 6000 tigers in captivity, but only 50 to 60 are left in the wild. In the 1980s, China set up tiger farms to try to preserve the big cats. But conservationists have criticised the farms, accusing them of seeking primarily to produce tiger parts, which some Asians regard as aphrodisiacs.

Packaged Traditional Chinese ‘Medicine’

[About as effective as eating garden snails]

.

The visitor to the farm – which has more than 1000 tigers in its cages – described the spectacle of a tiger killing an ox in a ”training cage” purportedly set aside as a training area for animals that are to be introduced to the wild. But most of the animals appeared tame and some were used in circus-like entertainment shows, where they were beaten. Black bears – kept for their bile – were also made to join a mock Chinese marriage procession where they acted as bride and groom, he wrote.

Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village

(a backward cruel colosseum for human hedonistic animal sadism)

.

Locals told him that the farm served tiger meat and sold tiger skin, but this was denied by staff.

Nonetheless, he concludes in the cable dated July 12, 2007, that:

”The commercial nature of the farm was troubling. The large number of endangered tigers and bears present with no current plans to reintroduce them into the wild raises concern regarding the motivation of such a farm.”

Four years later, these concerns remain valid. Reports earlier this year suggest the tiger population of the farm has grown.’

.

A threatened and persecuted species by backward human cultures,

reduced to the mercy of civilized humanity’s compassion and whim.

.

Gong Xi Fa Cai

[Chinese Year of the Tiger ~ a harbinger of mass slaughter]

.

2010 was the Chinese Zodiac Year of the Tiger

.

Footnote

Rare photo of a Caspian Tiger

.

Until the 19th century, Caspian tigers still inhabited wide spaces of Western and Central Asia. In the mid-19th century, Caspian tigers were killed 180 km northeast of Atbasar, Kazakhstan and as far North as near Barnaul, Russia.

The only reported Caspian tiger from Iraq was killed near Mosul in 1887. In 1899, the last Caspian tiger near the Lop Nur basin in Xinjiang, China, was killed. Caspian tigers disappeared from the Tarim River basin in Xinjiang, China, by the 1920s.

The last record of the Caspian tiger on the Ili River, their last stronghold in the region of Lake Balkhash, Kazakhstan, dates to 1948.

Caspian Tigers now are extinct. They only exist in illustration.

.

– end of article –

Tags: backward cultures, Chinese Tiger Farm, Dhabiha, Indonesian abattoirs, TCM, tiger bone, tiger parts, Traditional Chinese Medicine, WikiLeaks, Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village, Xiongsen Tiger, Xiongsen Tiger and Bear farm, Xiongsen Tiger Mountain Village
Posted in Threats from Poaching and Poisoning, Tigers | 1 Comment »

Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg

ACT unqualified to condemn Kangaroos

Sunday, August 28th, 2011

The following article was initially published by Tigerquoll on CanDoBetter.net 20090416 under the title: ‘ACT Environment Commissioner unqualified to condemn kangaroos’:

.

One day kangaroos grazing on Australian grasslands (long deforested by colonists)…

Next day, thanks to the ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment….

ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, Dr Maxine Cooper, is the Australia Capital Territory’s inaugural full-time Commissioner in the role, yet what relevant environmental qualifications and experience does the incumbent have, or indeed lack, to be officially condemning another local indigenous population of Australia’s iconic marsupials, our kangaroos, to slaughter for pet food?

The Environment Commissioner’s own website lists her formal qualifications in the areas of:

Environmental Planning
Environmental Design
Environmental Science

All these ‘environmentally’ friendly prefixes sound impressive, until one realises that each of these areas of academic study are not fauna focused, but indeed are all about human-centric utilisation of the natural environment for the benefit of humans. That is, these qualifications are all about maximising the convenience of the environment for humans. A wolf in charge of the kangaroos? It’s just like forestry pretending to care about forests.

Such qualifications offer no insight into the survival and habitat needs of Australian wildlife. “According to ACT’s inaugural Environment Commissioner, kangaroos at Belconnen were a threat to certain vulnerable and endangered species of fauna and flora on the site. Where’s the bloody independent zoological evidence, who would attest to this view under the test of peer scrutiny?

Now if our roo-shooting redneck commissioner had a more relevant Bachelor of Science in Zoology from say the University of Melbourne, she may be of a contrary mindset and less aligned to human planning needs and monetary gains; instead more empathetic to ecological needs of native fauna. The introductory paragraph for the University of Melbourne’s Honours degree in Zoology instills the following focus:
.

“How animals live and why they live that way are questions addressed by zoologists. Most of the Australian fauna are poorly understood or not even formally named, yet informed management and resource use of Australia’s flora, fauna and habitats depend upon zoological knowledge. We need to catalogue what species exist and how they survive in their natural environments. This requires knowledge of their physiology, breeding and reproductive systems, ecology, evolution and behaviour.”
[SOURCE: http://www.unimelb.edu.au/HB/areas/SZOOL.html]

Maxine Cooper, where are your qualifications in Zoology, in Conservation and in Australian wildlife to entitle you to officially condemn thousands of Australia’s iconic kangaroos to slaughter for cat and dog food?

Can you guarantee the Australian public that none of these kangaroos is to be minced for cat and dog food?

The standard setting for the job prerequisites for the ACT’s Environment Commissioner are woeful and clearly not in the best interests of the target subject – our natural wildlife. What were they thinking by employing a planner in environmental management?

.

Editor’s comment:

.

The stated role of the OCSE is to:

‘Investigate complaints about the management of the environment by the Territory or a Territory authority’
‘Conducts investigations as directed by the Minister’
‘Initiates investigations into actions of an agency where those actions would have a substantial impact on the environment of the ACT’
‘Produces state of the environment reports for the ACT and the 17 councils in the Australian Capital Region’
‘Makes recommendations for consideration by government and includes in our annual report the outcomes of those recommendations’
‘Resolves issues through mediation and conflict resolution’
‘Undertakes an advocacy and awareness role on sustainability and environmental issues.’

[Source: OCSE website, ^http://www.envcomm.act.gov.au/our_office]

So it basically seems to be an ACT Government environmental watchdog agency. Why?

The ACT covers only 2400 square kilometres and has under 400,000 people. It already has an Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate [Read More], which lumps disparate functions under one watered down super-ministry including environment, water, climate change, planning (including development assessment, leasing, construction, land use and utilities regulation, surveying and land information), the Government architect, heritage, transport planning and nature conservation.

So is OCSE the watchdog for one overburdened super-ministry? It is bureacracy gone mad. Since Canberra is the seat of the federal government and ACT is so small, why not just have the Federal Government look after ACT conservation matters and be cost effective with taxpapers’ money?

It is gross deceptive greenwash when the Australian Capital Territory government merges all its conservation responsibility into one super agency, The Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, (OCSE), then heads it up with a town planner [Read More], then tries to claims that it has custodial responsibility for environment and conservation on behalf of the people of the ACT. It is wholly consistent with government’s misuse and abuse of the word ‘sustainability‘ ~ to mean any action that sustains the government’s conveniences and political ends, such as land use development of grasslands for industry. The Office is simply a development planning arm of the ACT Government and many Canberra-based property developers are very happy with the arrangement thank you very much.

But it is the biased leading the inept when one reads a report, ‘Report of the Grassland Forum‘ dated 20 May 2010 on the website of this Office of the Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment.

The report considers the future potential of the 10,000 hectares of native grassland just outside Canberra.

This report was not compiled not internally (probably because the OCSE employs not competent environmental scientists to do so), but believe it or not by a property development consulting firm ‘Beaconhill Consulting‘. ‘Beaconhill Consulting’s recent work is listed on its website as:

Strategic performance review of a major multi-program investment portfolio valued at several hundred million dollars
Due diligence examination of a multi-million dollar import business investment – supply chain and market analyses, review of product efficacy and policy framework
Strategic Business Development for an emerging export business – Board level reforms and strategies, business plan development, commercialisation strategy, marketing plans, industry development application, governance arrangements and commercial partner negotiations
Business Development, government submissions, marketing plans, and client tenders.

The ‘Report of the Grassland Forum’ “found that the Eastern Grey Kangaroos are the dominant herbivore in natural grasslands..and that their overgrazing has lead to erosion and loss of plant species“.

It is not surprising that the Maxine Coopper’s office has approved many hundreds of these native kangaroos have been conveniently slaughtered for pet food. Some nutter has even contrived a myth that these grazing native kangaroos are threatening the survival of a rare native Earless Dragon in the area. Kangaroos threatening native animals! That’ a cracker! The fact that thousands of hectares of these grasslands are planned for bulldozing to make way for industrial and residential development may not threatend the Earless Dragon is not mentioned in the report.

It is laughable to read terms such as ‘diversity‘ and ‘ecology‘ used in the report in the context of industrial development.

The study focused upon Canberra restricted supply and diversity of industrial land. It is considered that Eastern Broadacre will play a critical role in meeting Canberra’s industrial needs in the long term. The study found that possible uses include:

Freight/ transport and logistics

Industrial and associated office

Warehousing/ storage

Education and training facilities

Tourism/ recreational uses

‘Belinda explained that the sustainability corridors may have broader considerations, and ACTPLA is keen to explore light industry ecology.’

[Read Report]

So this is where the tax revenue of the people of Australia’s Capital Territory around Canberra is being spent. How much did this report cost? How much did the OCSE logo above cost – took a lot of imagination that one!

Tags: ACT bureaucracy, ACT Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment, ACT taxpayers money wasted, Dr Maxine Cooper, Eastern Broadacre, Eastern Grey Kangaroos, Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate, greenwash, kangaroo meat, kangaroo pet food, kangaroo slaughter, Report of the Grassland Forum, save the kangaroo, the biased leading the inept, Visit Canberra
Posted in Kangaroos and Macropods, Threats from Poaching and Poisoning | No Comments »

Add this post to Del.icio.us - Digg

Petting and eating protected marine life

Sunday, June 26th, 2011

June 26th, 2011 .

Australia’s marine wildlife habitat continues to be decimated by commercial and recreational fishing, urban sewage and runoff, and pollution-caused global warming driving up sea temperatures.

Compounding these threats, new threats have emerged from two recent human sources:

The ‘Native Pet Trade’
‘Upmarket Restaurants’

.
.

.

Threats from the ‘Native Pet Trade’

The Native Pet Trade in Australia is on the rise.

The more discerning pet owner, not content with a garden variety dog or cat, are seeking more ‘exotic’ pets. Reptiles andf unusual marine life have become fashionable.

Then there is the increasing number of apartment dwellers without room for a dog or cat, who are now seeking ‘pocket pets’. Pocket pets are smaller and include animals such as rats, mice and guinea pigs and native and exotic wildlife species: birds, reptiles, fish, crabs, amphibians and invertebrates. Sydney in particular has an increasingly dense urban population and with the increasing housing density and apartment living, the popularity of smaller animals as pets is on the rise. The misconception by many seeking small wildlife species as pets is that these species are less needy and easier to care for than dogs and cats.

But the issue is not the interests of the ‘pet’ owner; the issue is the problem of wildlife poaching and inadequate government enforcement. Irrespective of the motivation, poaching is poaching; albeit for commercial gain, for deviant gratification from killing animals, or perverted ‘pet’ ownership.

Not content with the ordinary garden variety gold fish, discerning private aquarium owners seeking to keep up with the latest trends are seeking out rarer and more unusual marine species to make their showcase fish tank just that little more special and different. It’s a kind a fish tank fashion, it f that’s your thing. Perceived better that exotic fish, what better way to impress guests that having a real seahorse in your tank? No thought is given to the fact that these are generally poached from the wild. No thought is given to about their dwindling numbers or impacts on the ecosystems from which they are poached.

One of the latest aquarium fashion statements particular to Sydney seems to be Weedy Sea Dragons, an Australian native reptile, along with other Australian marine fauna. People are simply poaching marine life for their own personal gain.

To the casual observer, what may pass for innocuous weekend pastime of recreational beachcombing, has become wildlife poaching. Recent years have seen a trend of groups of people scouring coastal rock platforms not for chance inanimate objects washed ashore, but specifically taking Australian marine life. This is poaching is not beach-combing.

Yet governments around Australia are reneging on their custodial duty to protect Australia’s precious marine life.

.

Case in Point: ‘Long Reef Aquatic Reserve’

.

Long Reef Aquatic Reserve is a large rock platform situated on Sydney’s northern beaches area at Collaroy and extends from Collaroy rock baths south to the Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club. It contains a rich diversity and abundance of marine invertebrates rarely seen anywhere and for this reason and due to risks of wildlife poaching, in 1980 it was declared a protected aquatic reserve under the Fisheries Management Act 1994, primarily to protect marine invertebrates found on the rock platforms, and to protect subtidal marine plants and animals.

Long Reef is one of twelve aquatic reserves across New South Wales (Australia) established to protect biodiversity and provide representative samples of our wonderfully varied marine life and habitats. Only fin fishing is permitted. No marine plants or animals can be harmed. This includes the collection of empty shells and dead plants or animals because they provide important habitat or food for living invertebrates. The penalties for breaking the rules are quite severe. NSW Fisheries legislation provides for fines up to $110,000 and on-the-spot fines also apply. All fishing or diving gear may also be forfeited.

[Source: NSW Fisheries Sydney North, http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nationalparks/parkHome.aspx?id=a0004]

.

Weedy Sea Dragon

One of the protected species of Long Reef is the ‘Weedy Seadragon‘ (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus), a marine fish related to the seahorse that grows up to 45cm in length. It is found only found in shallow coastal waters of southern Australian from Geraldton WA, to Port Stephens NSW and down around Tasmania. It is the only member of the genus Phyllopteryx. Weedy Seadragons are named for the weed-like projections on their bodies that camouflage them as they move among the seaweed beds where they are usually found.

Due to their unusual appearance, they have become the target marine poaching by private aquarium owners and those in the native pet trade seeking to profiteer.

Weedy Seadragon‘ (Phyllopteryx taeniolatus)

.

There is much concern for the future of the Weedy Seadragon and others in their family. They are threatened by habitat destruction, and potentially by the aquarium trade. Currently seadragons are protected under fisheries legislation federally and in most states where they occur, it is illegal to take or export them without a permit. [Source: http://www.abyss.com.au/scuba/pc/Weedy-Seadragon-p4291.htm]

Continual wildlife pillaging on Long Reef is causing reduction in the numbers and diversity of marine life including the weedy sea dragon. Despite the prospect of a $3300 fine or six months’ imprisonment, few offenders have been caught by authorities, because government monitoring by fisheries inspectors is woefully inadequate. The last arrest was in September 2009, when Manly police caught two teenagers with water dragons stuffed into their backpacks. The teenagers, who were from the western suburbs, told police they wanted to take the lizards home as pets. The poaching is also driven by the black market for native pets.

Water Dragon (Physignathus lesueurii)

One doesn’t have to look far to find Water Dragons for sale on the Internet. They seem to go for $65 – $100.

.

‘Lizards For Sale’

www.tradingpost.com.au/Pets

.

‘Red Phase Bearded Dragons’

www.ultimatereptiles.com.au/…/dragons/dragongallery.html

.

‘Reptiles For Sale – petpages.com.au’

www.exotic-pets.co.uk/lizards-for-sale.html

.

‘Australia Reptiles / Amphibians for Sale, Adoption, Buy, Sell …’

www.adpost.com

.

‘Chinese Water Dragons Classifieds’

Water Dragons For Sale, $24.99 Each Plus $39.95 Overnight Shipping! … 60 Gallon Lizard Tank. 60 gallon 50inchesx13inchesx23inches including stand,screen …
www.hoobly.com/0/2619/0/

.

‘The Pet Directory: World’s largest online pet directory of …’

Specialising in Lizards – Over 80 species of Geckos, Dragons, ….. pythons pythons for sale snake breeders lizards for sale lizard breeders water dragons …
www.petdirectory.com.au/?Reptile_Breeders…1…

.

‘Buy Water Dragons Online. For Sale with Same Day Shipping’

Water Dragon. Manufacturer: ABOUT OUR LIZARDS; Average Size Shipped – Varies… Please add to cart to see current sizes available; We have beginner reptiles …
www.bigappleherp.com/Water-Dragon

‘Gippsland Water Dragons – Aquarium and reptile online shop in …’

The Gippsland Water Dragon(Physignathus lesueurii howittii) is a large lizar. It is grey-green and brown with black banding on back and a row of spines …
www.amazingamazon.com.au/…sale/lizards-for-sale/lizards-for-sale/gippsland-water-dragons-for-sale.html

.

Threats from Upmarket Restaurants

.

Also along Long Reef locals have reported witnessing groups poaching marine life on the protected rock platforms.

“Groups and whole families that start at Palm Beach in a bus and go down the peninsula, combing all the rock shelves for marine life, looking for anything they can sell in a restaurant or eat themselves – sea urchins, shellfish, cunjevoi, sea snails, the lot.”

[Source: Shannon Leckie, ‘Under cover of darkness a lone stance against wildlife poachers‘, by Tim Elliott, 20110430, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/under-cover-of-darkness-a-lone-stance-against-wildlife-poachers-20110429-1e0sj.html]

The Exclusive Restaurant Trade in Australia is also on the rise.

Not content with the garden variety fish and chips, exclusive seafood restaurants across Sydney are luring the more discerning diner try more novel offerings, including Australian native red sea urchins, which can be found at Long Reef.

Red Sea Urchin

(Photo from Long Reef)

.

While it is not known which Sydney restaurants may be serving up sea urchins poached from the Long Reef Aquatic Reserve, the following article reveals recent trends by exclusive seafood restaurants across Sydney to include unusual marine animals on their menus.

.

‘Deep Sea Dining’

…by Olivia Riordan and Lissa Christopher,Sydney Morning Herald’s ‘Good Living’ magazine on 15th December 2009.

.

‘A few courageous chefs, the discovery of great local product and diners’ willingness to try novel foods have combined to bring a strange-looking creature off the sea floor and into Sydney’s fine dining venues. Sea urchin has a host of new fans.

”I’ve sold more sea urchin in the past 12 months than I have in the past four years,” says Wayne Hulme from Christie’s Seafood.

Christie’s Asian clientele have enjoyed the spiny creatures for years but, Hulme says, Neil Perry was among the first chefs to put it on a modern Australian menu. ”He’s 10 years ahead of everyone else,” Hulme says.

At Rockpool, Perry serves snapper with a sea urchin roe butter.

The roe inside sea urchins is the real prize. It has a rich, sharp taste Perry describes as “a spoonful of icing sugar, salt straight from the sea and an egg” and Hulme describes as “sweet, salty and weighty”.

Live sea urchin dish at Hugos Manly by chef Massimo Mele.
© Photo: Marco del Grande

Red sea urchins are prized over black sea urchins because they carry roe year round, says Ralph Lavender, a diver and fisher who works with his son on the coast near Kiama and provides Christie’s with up to 100 kilograms of sea urchins each week. Black urchins are more common, he says, but they’re barren for six months of the year. They’re just starting to carry roe again now.

Lavender attributes the rising popularity of sea urchins to chefs realising good local product is available and Australian diners’ growing willingness to try new things.

”People have changed their culinary delights, if you like,” he says. ‘‘They’ll try witchetty grub, a bit of kangaroo tail, a bit of camel meat.”

Now they’re trying sea urchin and Lavender couldn’t be happier. Demand for his catch outstrips his capacity to supply, he says. NSW Department of Primary Industries licensing restrictions place limits on how many sea urchins he can bring in.

Hulme says that, until recently, a lot of the sea urchin roe sold at Christie’s was imported from Chile, arriving fresh but pre-extracted and packaged. Lavender’s sea urchins arrive in Sydney alive with their spikes still wiggling.

Rockpool isn’t the only Sydney restaurant serving sea urchin. Martin Benn from Sepia serves a sea urchin roe butter with mulloway and at Kables Restaurant, chef Carl Middleton makes a sea urchin soup with shark fin and lemon grass, presented in a sea urchin shell.

The head chef with the Hugos Group, Massimo Mele, uses sea urchins in a range of dishes and has been known to dive for them himself. Mele grew up eating the “beautiful and simple” urchins on the Italian coast and doesn’t complicate them on his own menu.’

[Source: ^http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/12/14/1260639163722.html]

.

So where do Sydney restaurants serving ‘Sea Urchin Sauce’ get their sea urchins from?

.

At Rockpool restaurant in The Rocks, “Perry serves snapper with a sea urchin roe butter“.

[Source: ^http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/12/14/1260639163722.html]

Jonah’s of nearby Whale Beach offers as a main course: “Crepinette of Kingfish and Ocean Trout, prawn and scallop mousse, Kipfler potatoes, spinach and Sea Urchin sauce | $48.00“

Source: ^http://www.bestrestaurants.com.au/restaurants/NSW-Greater-Sydney-jonahs.aspx]

Rise in Darlinghurst back in 2005 served up Amuse-bouche which included “semi-poached egg, sea-urchin sauce, salmon roe and shiso“.
[Source: ^http://grabyourfork.blogspot.com/2005/02/rise-darlinghurst.html]

Quadrant Restaurant at Circular Quay on its lunch menu includes for main, “pan roasted blue eye cod, braised fennel, sea urchin butter sauce“

[Source: ^http://mirvac-hotels.assets0.blockshome.com/assets/quay-grand-suites-sydney/7uqAftquXhxhatm/full-quadrant-menu-updated-250510.pdf]

Kabuki Shoroku Seafood Japanese Restaurant in St Martin Tower Clkarence Street Sydney, serves up ‘Kaisen Funamori’, which is described on the menu as:
“Chef’s best selection of fresh sashimi assortment ( live lobster, live abalone, oyster, tuna, salmon, sea urchin and white fish)”

[Source: ^http://www.kabukishoroku.com.au/menu.htm]

.

So where do these restaurants get their sea urchins from?

Are the sea urchins poached from wildlife sanctuaries?

Are the sea urchins endangered?

.

How would diners know?

Do diners care?

.

.K

.

Concerned locals frustrated at government inaction are taking matters into their own hands

.

‘SOS..Save-Our-Snails’

‘Pressure is mounting on authorities to do more to stop the illegal collecting of marine life from Long Reef Aquatic Reserve. Locals have flooded The Manly Daily with complaints about people illegally gathering large sea snails and shellfish from the unique reserve.

Both Warringah Council and the National Parks and Wildlife Service claim to be regularly patrolling the rock platforms, but residents claim it is ineffective.

Beacon Hill resident Joe Van Ewyk took this photo at the reserve late last year.

Illegal poaching of marine life from Long Reef Aquatic Reserve

“There was a group who were very efficient and methodical at removing shells, etc, using metal bars and placing them into a bucket,” he said. “They were there for a considerable length of time – no one confronted them, rangers or otherwise.”

Mr Van Ewyk said not enough was being done to protect the unique platform.

“Go up to Port Stephens and stick your nose into a marine park and you’ll have three rubber duckies onto you straight away, checking your boat for fishing equipment,” he said.

“They’re very keen up there but down here there is nothing.”

Lucette Rutherford said she and her husband regularly swam at Collaroy Basin near the rock platform and on numerous occasions had seen groups of people collecting buckets of shellfish from the rock platforms.

“My husband has called NSW Fisheries and Warringah Council numerous times and only ever reached an answering machine,” he said. “It is distressing to see this damage to the marine life in our protected areas and the open disregard these people show.”

Marine expert Phil Colman said the illegal activity was a regular occurrence and could have a detrimental impact on the broader environment.

“When you target somewhere like Long Reef Aquatic Reserve you are affecting an important link in the food chain,” he said.

A Warringah Council spokeswoman said rangers conducted daily patrols and worked closely with Fisheries, the Surf Club and the Friends of Long Reef to protect the area.

Anyone who sees any illegal activity should contact Warringah Council on 9942 2111 or Fishers Watch Phoneline 1800 043 536.

Mr Colman will lead a guided tour of Long Reef Aquatic Reserve on February 20 from 4pm to 6pm. Details: 0411 124 200.

[Source: ^http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/sos-save-our-snails/]

.

‘Come and join my marine corps urges reef saviour’

Wildlife warrior Shannon Leckie has extended his covert surveillance operation to Long Reef and is looking for volunteers to join the cause.

Concerned nearby resident to Long Reef, Shannon Leckie, is trying to catch the poachers in the act.

.

Mr Leckie, who uses night-vision goggles, camouflage equipment and video recorders to record illegal poachers, wants to create a group of wardens to help protect marine life at the protected reserve. Poaching has been an ongoing issue with people ignoring signs and taking large sea snails and shellfish from the rock platform at low tide.

The former navy medic said he needed volunteers to help record the details of illegal poachers.

“I will film them and then relay the information up to someone in the carpark who can record their licence plates,” he said. “We will then pass that information on to the authorities.”

Only last week Mr Leckie filmed a group of people poaching from the platform in plain sight. “I got them as they walked off the rock shelf and they just looked straight at me,” he said.

One person who has already enlisted is Warringah Greens councillor, Christina Kirsch, who said she would to hand out flyers educating people about the protected reserve.

AQUATIC RESERVE

Extends from Collaroy rockpools to Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club.
The reserve was declared in 1980 to protect marine invertebrates on rock platforms and sub-tidal marine plants and animals.
Except for fin fishing, collecting or harming marine plants or animals in the reserve is banned.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

To become a volunteer warden at Long Reef email ckirsch@optusnet.com.au

[Source: ‘Come and join my marine corps urges reef saviour’, by Brenton Cherry in Manly Daily newspaper, 20110513, ^http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/come-and-join-my-marine-corps-urges-reef-saviour/]

.

Under cover of darkness a lone stance against wildlife poachers

by Tim Elliott, Sydney Morning Herald, 20110430.

.

‘Eco Warrior … fed up with wildlife pillaging on the northern beaches, Shannon Leckie is donning camouflage gear and trying to catch people in the act.

.

‘If you spot a man hiding in the bushes with a video camera around the northern beaches do not be alarmed. It’s just Shannon Leckie, former Royal Australian Navy medic and eco-vigilante extraordinaire. Fed up with the systematic pillaging of native wildlife from his local area, Mr Leckie is going undercover, dressed in combat fatigues and equipped with night-vision goggles and a video camera.

“It’s going to be hit and miss,” the 40-year-old father of two admits. “I plan to get a lie-out position and then just film whatever illegal activity I see. If I catch anyone I’ll call the police and then hand the footage over.”

Mr Leckie will not be carrying any weapons.

“I don’t want to scare anyone. It’s just that the government isn’t putting enough money into this. In Africa and America they have teams dedicated to stop poaching, but here it seems to be pretty much a free for all, especially with the water dragons at Manly and the sea life at Long Reef.”

The eastern water dragon, a lizard protected under the National Parks and Wildlife Act, was once a common sight along the walkway from Manly to Shelly Beach. But a recent spate of “lizard napping” has halved their numbers, with offenders plucking the animals from the cliffs and bundling them into pillowcases and beach towels.

“It’s a huge problem for us,” said Henry Wong, the general manager of Manly Council, which installed anti-poaching signs in December. “They tend to take the breeding males, because they’re the biggest, which is devastating the colonies.”

Stealing a water dragon attracts a $3300 fine or six months’ imprisonment, but catching offenders has proven difficult. The last arrest was in September 2009, when Manly police caught two teenagers with water dragons stuffed into their backpacks. The teenagers, who were from the western suburbs, told police they wanted to take the lizards home as pets. But Mr Wong believes it is possible the animals are being traded on the black market.

Mr Leckie agrees. “I assume they are selling them overseas, because native Australian flora and fauna fetches quite bit of money.”

Mr Leckie also plans to monitor the northern beaches’ rock platforms. “There are groups and whole families that start at Palm Beach in a bus and go down the peninsula, combing all the rock shelves for marine life, looking for anything they can sell in a restaurant or eat themselves – sea urchins, shellfish, cunjevoi, sea snails, the lot.”

Phil Colman, a marine expert with the Collaroy group Fishcare Volunteers, said the Long Reef Aquatic Reserve was particularly vulnerable, because of its size, diversity and various points of entry. “I have seen people using penknives and crowbars, even bits of wood, to forage on the reef. Usually they target turban shells, and sometimes limpets. They can collect 200 or 300 limpets in a session. You call the fisheries inspectors but by the time they arrive the people are long gone.”

Recognised as the most diverse intertidal marine environment in NSW (“and one of the best in Australia,” according to Mr Colman), the aquatic reserve is used as a teaching platform by university students and schools as far away as Broken Hill.

“And yet poaching there is a constant problem. The issue is that when you target somewhere like Long Reef, you effect the entire food chain.”

Warringah Council recently allocated $40,000 to look into establishing an education centre and “wet lab” at the reef for international and local students. However, in the meantime Mr Leckie will be watching. “I just feel I have to act now, because it’s been going on for so long.”

[Source: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/under-cover-of-darkness-a-lone-stance-against-wildlife-poachers-20110429-1e0sj.html]

Long Reef

.

References:

.

[1] ^http://www.awrc.org.au/uploads/5/8/6/6/5866843/gamble_pets.pdf

[2] ^http://members.ozemail.com.au/~surfcity/Pages/Beach.html

[3] ^http://www.redbubble.com/people/salieri1627/art/5500094-rock-pool-long-reef-aquatic-park-sydney-30-exposure-hdr-panorama-the-hdr-experience
Philip Johnson
[4] http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nationalparks/parkHome.aspx?id=a0004

[5] http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nationalparks/parktypes.aspx?type=aquaticreserve

[6] Weedy Seadragon, ^http://www.abyss.com.au/scuba/pc/Weedy-Seadragon-p4291.htm

[7] ^http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllopteryx

[8] Olivia Riordan and Lissa Christopher, 20091215, ^http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/12/14/1260639163722.html

[9] Under cover of darkness a lone stance against wildlife poachers, Tim Elliott, 201104309, ^http://www.smh.com.au/environment/under-cover-of-darkness-a-lone-stance-against-wildlife-poachers-20110429-1e0sj.html

[10] ‘Come and join my marine corps, urges reef saviour’, by Brenton Cherry, 20110513, ^http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/come-and-join-my-marine-corps-urges-reef-saviour/

[11] ^http://www.flickr.com/photos/lsydney/5626257447/

[12] ^http://www.aquariumslife.com/saltwater-fish/seahorse/weedy-sea-dragon-phyllopteryx-taeniolatus/

[13] ^http://www.riverwonders.com/p-97-weedy-sea-dragon-show-specimen-5-6.aspx

[14] ^http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/sos-save-our-snails/

[15] Wobbegong sharks released at Long Reef Aquatic Reserve, ^http://mosman-daily.whereilive.com.au/photos/gallery/wobbegong-sharks-released-at-long-reef-aquatic-reserve-photos-by-simon-cocksedge/

[16] Wobbegongs return to the wild but stay close to home, Aaron Cook, March 9, 2011
http://www.theage.com.au/environment/animals/wobbegongs-return-to-the-wild-but-stay-close-to-home-20110308-1bmod.html

[17] A world in a rock pool, By Rachel Sullivan, ^http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2011/01/18/3114813.htm

[18] ^http://travel.aol.com/travel-guide/australia-and-south-pacific/australia/sydney/long-reef-aquatic-reserve-thingstodo-detail-387857/

[19] http://www.warringah.nsw.gov.au/news_events/documents/WMatters13Autumn09.pdf (page 5)

[20] ‘$40,000 kick start for plan to stop poaching’, by Brenton Cherry, 20110304
^http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/40-000-kick-start-for-plan-to-stop-poaching/

[21] http://www.warringah.nsw.gov.au/council_then/documents/20110208m.pdf (pages 9-10)

[22] ^http://www.lachlanhunter.deadsetfreestuff.com/JB/geo-sitesK-L.htm

[23] ^http://www.reefcarelongreef.org.au/

[24] Save Long Reef Coalition.

.

[The above Internet references were accessed 20110626]

.

– end of article –

RSPCA Qld provides for pocket pets like rats, mice and guinea pigs but the category
“Pocket Pets” also includes native and exotic wildlife species: birds, reptiles, fish,
crabs, amphibians and invertebrates.

As the human population increases in Australia so does housing density, especially on
the East Coast. The popularity of smaller animals as pets is on the rise. It is
generally considered, and most often incorrectly, by the broader community that these
species are less needy and easier to care for than dogs and cats. I offer the following
for consideration in the wildlife as pets debate and argue that having wildlife as pets is
generally not a good idea.
http://www.awrc.org.au/uploads/5/8/6/6/5866843/gamble_pets.pdf

Long Reef Aquatic Reserve was declared in 1980 It extends from Collaroy rock baths south to Long Reef SLSC, and from mean high water out 100m from mean low water (Approx 60 ha.). The reserve was declared primarily to protect marine invertebrates found on the rock platforms, and to protect subtidal marine plants and animals. It is also important for marine education. Long Reef Aquatic Reserve includes two main rocky shores. The northern rocky reef area is protected from southerly swells by the prominent eastern headland, whilst the eastern large platform is more exposed. Different organisms occur in these different areas. Sydney’s northern beaches feature many diverse rock platforms. Long Reef Aquatic Reserve is unique due to its exposure to all four points of the compass. Species dwelling here have managed to adapt well to a huge range of severe conditions. Long Reef Aquatic Reserve has a wide variety of habitats, including sheltered boulder fields and surf-exposed ledges. The diversity and abundance of marine invertebrates here is rarely seen anywhere.

http://members.ozemail.com.au/~surfcity/Pages/Beach.html

The Long Reef Aquatic Reserve was declared primarily to protect the marine invertebrates and sub-tidal marine plants and animals. Isobel Bennett AO (1908-2007, at right) was a marine conservation pioneer whose work on Sydney’s rock platforms led to the establishment of the Aquatic Reserve in 1980 by the state government. The reserve covers an area of approx. 60ha from the high water mark out to 100m from low water, extending from the Collaroy rock pool south to Long Reef Surf Club on Long Reef beach.

http://www.redbubble.com/people/salieri1627/art/5500094-rock-pool-long-reef-aquatic-park-sydney-30-exposure-hdr-panorama-the-hdr-experience
Philip Johnson

Long Reef Aquatic Reserve on Sydney’s northern beaches is approximately 20 kilometres north of the city. It extends from Collaroy rock baths south to Long Reef Surf Lifesaving Club, and from mean high water to 100 metres out from mean low water.

The reserve includes two main rocky shores. The northern rocky reef area is protected from southerly swells by the prominent eastern headland, while the larger eastern platform is more exposed. Different organisms occur in these two areas.

Long Reef Aquatic Reserve protects the marine invertebrates on the rock platforms as well as subtidal marine plants and animals. It is also an important site for marine education.

What you can do in the reserve

Long Reef Aquatic Reserve has been set aside for the protection of marine plants and invertebrates. When lifting rocks, be careful of attached animals and about exposing animals underneath to direct sunlight. Also be sure that the rocks are put back in the same place.

Fin-fish can be taken by line or spear only but bring your own bait. Strict bag limits apply to both the numbers and sizes of fish caught. If unsure of what these are, ask the local Fisheries Officer.

With the exception of fin-fish, no marine plants or animals can be harmed. This includes the collection of empty shells and dead plants or animals because they provide important habitat or food for living invertebrates.

The penalties for breaking the rules are quite severe. NSW Fisheries legislation provides for fines up to $110,000 and on-the-spot fines also apply. All fishing or diving gear may also be forfeited.

For further information

Contact NSW Fisheries Sydney North on 8437 4901

or the Port Stephens Fisheries Centre, Protected Areas Unit on 4982 1232

Report any illegal activity to Fishers Watch Phoneline 1800 043 536

(free call 24 hrs State wide)
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nationalparks/parkHome.aspx?id=a0004

Reserve types in NSW – Aquatic reserve

Aquatic reserves have been established to protect biodiversity and provide representative samples of our wonderfully varied marine life and habitats. New South Wales currently has 12 aquatic reserves declared under the Fisheries Management Act 1994.

Although aquatic reserves are generally small compared with marine parks, they play a significant role in the NSW marine protected area system. Apart from protecting important habitat, nursery areas and vulnerable and threatened species, aquatic reserves also have valuable research and educational roles.

Community involvement is critical in the management of aquatic reserves. Through public involvement in management planning processes, the government seeks to achieve community partnership in these important places, providing on going protection for the future.

http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nationalparks/parktypes.aspx?type=aquaticreserve

Weedy Seadragon

Weedy Seadragons are only found in southern Australian waters, usually ranging from Geraldton WA, to Port Stephens NSW and down around Tasmania. They are weird and mystical looking, not quite seahorse, not quite fish. The Weedy Seadragon is closely related to the seahorse, being a member of the Syngnathidae family. Their habitat is listed as moderately to sub maximally exposed reefs between 1-50m. In Sydney have a number of dive sites where seadragons are spotted on almost every dive. More details…
Previous Item Next Item

Details
video
Reviews

enriched air course

Weedy Seadragons can grow to about 46cm in length. They are orange/red in colour with numerous whitish spots on a lot of their body and along their tube shaped snout. The seadragon also have bluish purple stripes and some yellow markings along their bodies as well. They have leaf like appendages and a few short spines occurring along their body. The seadragon camouflage is quite good and they do resemble seaweed floating on the bottom of the sea floor. Unless you know what you are looking for seadragons can be easily overlooked. Once you have found a few of these creatures it becomes easier to spot them.

Weedy Seadragons usually have a single brood of eggs per season, but if conditions are favourable they have been known to have two broods in one season. They usually breed in spring, however several males weedy seadragon have been spotted in Sydney recently with eggs. Prior to mating the male prepares the area of his tail where he will keep the eggs. This area becomes slightly swollen, soft and spongy. The female actually pushes the eggs onto the males tail. Once on his tail they are fertilised. The male carries anything from 120 to 300 eggs on his tail. He carries the eggs for about 2 months and then the eggs hatch over a period of 6 days. The seadragon hatchlings are quite large when born ranging fm 2.5cm-3.5cm in length and still have a yolk sac attached to them, which supports them for two days while their snout grows. Once their snout is grown they can begin to feed. Juveniles can double in length in one week and can reach 15cm by the end of 14 weeks. Some baby weedy seadragons (about 7cms) have been spotted recently on some of our dives at Kurnell. January this year a lot of juveniles were seen out at Kurnell.

The seadragons diet mainly consists of sea lice and other small crustaceans. They seem to suck their prey straight into the snout! There is much concern for the future of the Weedy Seadragon and others in their family. They are threatened by habitat destruction, and potentially by the aquarium trade. Currently seadragons are protected under fisheries legislation federally and in most states where they occur, it is illegal to take or export them without a permit.

When diving with these beautiful creatures remember not to touch them, be happy to look and photograph the seadragon without harassing them.

http://www.abyss.com.au/scuba/pc/Weedy-Seadragon-p4291.htm

Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, the Weedy Seadragon or Common Seadragon, is a marine fish related to the seahorse. It is the only member of the genus Phyllopteryx. It is found in water 3 to 50 m deep around the southern coastline of Australia, approximately between Port Stephens, New South Wales and Geraldton, Western Australia, as well as around Tasmania. Weedy Seadragons are named for the weed-like projections on their bodies that camouflage them as they move among the seaweed beds where they are usually found.
Weedy Seadragon, Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, from the Sketchbook of fishes by William Buelow Gould, 1832

Weedy Seadragons can reach 45 cm in length. They feed on tiny crustaceans and other zooplankton, from places such as crevices in reef, which are sucked into the end of their long tube-like snout. They lack a prehensile tail that enables similar species to clasp and anchor themselves. Phyllopteryx taeniolatus swim in shallow reefs and weed beds, and resemble drifting weed when moving over bare sand.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllopteryx

=======================

Olivia Riordan and Lissa Christopher
December 15, 2009
Page 1 of 2 | Single page

Afew courageous chefs, the discovery of great local product and diners’ willingness to try novel foods have combined to bring a strange-looking creature off the sea floor and into Sydney’s fine dining venues. Sea urchin has a host of new fans.

”I’ve sold more sea urchin in the past 12 months than I have in the past four years,” says Wayne Hulme from Christie’s Seafood.

At Rockpool, Perry serves snapper with a sea urchin roe butter.

Lavender attributes the rising popularity of sea urchins to chefs realising good local product is available and Australian diners’ growing willingness to try new things.

”People have changed their culinary delights, if you like,” he says. ”They’ll try witchetty grub, a bit of kangaroo tail, a bit of camel meat.”

Now they’re trying sea urchin and Lavender couldn’t be happier. Demand for his catch outstrips his capacity to supply, he says. NSW Department of Primary Industries licensing restrictions place limits on how many sea urchins he can bring in.

Hulme says that, until recently, a lot of the sea urchin roe sold at Christie’s was imported from Chile, arriving fresh but pre-extracted and packaged. Lavender’s sea urchins arrive in Sydney alive with their spikes still wiggling.

Live sea urchin dish at Hugos Manly by chef Massimo Mele.
Photo: Marco del Grande

=======================

Under cover of darkness a lone stance against wildlife poachers
Tim Elliott
April 30, 2011

Eco Warrior … fed up with wildlife pillaging on the northern beaches, Shannon Leckie is donning camouflage gear and trying to catch people in the act. Photo: Edwina Pickles

IF YOU spot a man hiding in the bushes with a video camera around the northern beaches do not be alarmed. It’s just Shannon Leckie, former Royal Australian Navy medic and eco-vigilante extraordinaire. Fed up with the systematic pillaging of native wildlife from his local area, Mr Leckie is going undercover, dressed in combat fatigues and equipped with night-vision goggles and a video camera.

Mr Leckie will not be carrying any weapons.

Mr Leckie agrees. “I assume they are selling them overseas, because native Australian flora and fauna fetches quite bit of money.”

“And yet poaching there is a constant problem. The issue is that when you target somewhere like Long Reef, you effect the entire food chain.”

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/under-cover-of-darkness-a-lone-stance-against-wildlife-poachers-20110429-1e0sj.html#ixzz1PuLdhur9

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/under-cover-of-darkness-a-lone-stance-against-wildlife-poachers-20110429-1e0sj.html

=====
WILDLIFE warrior Shannon Leckie has extended his covert surveillance operation to Long Reef and is looking for volunteers to join the cause.

Mr Leckie, who uses night-vision goggles, camouflage equipment and video recorders to record illegal poachers, wants to create a group of wardens to help protect marine life at the protected reserve.

RELATED NEWS: Guardians of the night gear up to catch poachers

Poaching has been an ongoing issue with people ignoring signs and taking large sea snails and shellfish from the rock platform at low tide.

The former navy medic said he needed volunteers to help record the details of illegal poachers.

“I will film them and then relay the information up to someone in the carpark who can record their licence plates,” he said. “We will then pass that information on to the authorities.”

Only last week Mr Leckie filmed a group of people poaching from the platform in plain sight. “I got them as they walked off the rock shelf and they just looked straight at me,” he said.

One person who has already enlisted is Warringah Greens councillor, Christina Kirsch, who said she would to hand out flyers educating people about the protected reserve.

AQUATIC RESERVE
*Extends from Collaroy rockpools to Long Reef Surf Life Saving Club.
*The reserve was declared in 1980 to protect marine invertebrates on rock platforms and sub-tidal marine plants and animals.
*Except for fin fishing, collecting or harming marine plants or animals in the reserve is banned.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
*To become a volunteer warden at Long Reef email ckirsch@optusnet.com.au

Come and join my marine corps, urges reef saviour

Environment

13 May 11 @ 03:45pm by Brenton Cherry
http://manly-daily.whereilive.com.au/news/story/come-and-join-my-marine-corps-urges-reef-saviour/

====

Aplysia dactylomela

PHOTO: Long Reef, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, December 1995, 12cm long alive.

======

=====
Species name: Phyllopteryx taeniolatus
Common names: Common seadragon, Weedy Sea Dragon
Family: Syngnathidae (Pipefishes and seahorses)
Subfamily: Syngnathinae
Order: Syngnathiformes
Class: Actinopterygii
Maximum length: 18.11 in
Minimum tank size: unknown
Hardiness: Difficult. Not many aquariums have weedy sea dragons because they do not survive well in captivity. In fact, only slightly more than half do survive.
Aggressiveness: Peaceful
Reef Compatibility: Excellent
Distribution: Eastern Indian Ocean: southern Australia, from southern Western Australia to New South Wales and Tasmania
Diet: They use their tube shaped snout to such up zooplankton and any other tiny crustaceans they can find including mysids. Feeding is what makes them difficult to keep Weedies in an aquarium. They refuse to feed on anything other than their native food or live mysiid shrimps

Additional information:
Phyllopteryx taeniolatus, also known as the Weedy Sea Dragon is native to the Eastern Indian Ocean where it is found among seaweeds and coral reefs at depths of 0-160 feet. Unfortunately, not many aquariums have weedy sea dragons because they do not survive well in captivity. According to Marine Depot Blog, only about 50 aquariums worldwide have sea dragons. This might explain why it was so difficult to find information about this species.

Phyllopteryx taeniolatus is a close relative of the seahorse. It looks similar to the seahorse, except it has long weed-like structures that stick out from their bodies which makes them really difficult to distinguish in their natural environment. They have a long pipe-like snout with a small terminal mouth. The body is usually brown or reddish with their weed-like structures being greener. They also have yellow spots. The body is long and covered in rings of bone.
It is interesting that the Weedy Sea Dragon is so well camouflaged because scientists are still unsure if these animals actually have predators or not.

Sea dragons, sea horses and pipe fish are the only species where the male carries the eggs but seadragons do not have a pouch for rearing the young. Instead, the male carries the eggs fixed to the underside of his tail from where they eventually hatch.

I have found close to nothing about how to keep the Weedy Sea Dragon in aquarium.

http://www.aquariumslife.com/saltwater-fish/seahorse/weedy-sea-dragon-phyllopteryx-taeniolatus/

http://www.riverwonders.com/p-97-weedy-sea-dragon-show-specimen-5-6.aspx

=====

PRESSURE is mounting on authorities to do more to stop the illegal collecting of marine life from Long Reef Aquatic Reserve.

Locals have flooded The Manly Daily with complaints about people illegally gathering large sea snails and shellfish from the unique reserve.