The tranquillity of Tasmania’s wetlands will be broken an hour before dawn tomorrow with the formal opening of the annual duck shooting season.
“From tomorrow morning five of our native duck species will be blasted out of the skies in the name of sport,” Greens Environment spokesperson Nick McKim MP said.
“Unfortunately we can expect to see over 50, 000 native ducks lose their lives in Tasmania over the next three months.”
“Last year’s season saw an estimated 58, 9991 ducks killed, which is a mind-blowing amount. Shockingly it is an increase of the estimated 43, 928 ducks killed in 2010.” [1]
“This means that for each of the 1, 100 shooting licences for 2014, there was an average take of 53.6 birds.”
“But as we witness each and every shooting season, target and non-target species are also vulnerable to being wounded and dying a painful and lingering death beyond the reach of those keeping count.”
“The Centre for Ecosystem Science at the University of New South Wales has found that waterbirds in eastern Australia are in significant decline and that ‘game species’ are well below long term average levels.”
“It defies logic that these native water birds are protected for nine months of the year, but then reduced to providing shooters with live target practice for the remaining three months.”
“That this annual slaughter occurs across some of Tasmania’s most beautiful wetlands, including internationally recognised RAMSAR sites, makes the situation even worse.”
“Lets treat these tranquil reserves and their ecosystems with the respect they deserve. It is time Tasmania caught up with NSW, Queensland and Western Australia and banned the annual duck slaughter,” Mr McKim said.
The five duck ‘game’ species are: Wood Duck, Black Duck, Mountain Duck, Grey Teal and the Chestnut Teal.