Dear Central South Island Fish and Game Council,

Given your bag limits this season appear to be 50 combined mallard/grey/Shoveler, plus up to 25 Parries, plus the bag limits for any other birds, what statistics do you have on the following:

1. How many of the birds shot are harvested for food and eaten as food (given the average kiwi freezer would not hold even a quarter of one days bag limit)?

2.What do you advise shooters to do if they shoot close to the bag limit per person on multiple days and end up with significantly more dead birds than they can possibly freeze or give to friends?

3. What statistics/studies carried out/other reliable evidence do you have on what percentages of birds shot are used as food (and for those birds what percentage of the carcass) and what is done with the remainder?

4. What statistics or information do you have, or have you attempted to collect to track how excess shot birds are disposed of?

5. What evidence do you have from your own research to prove that excess shot birds are not being disposed of in ways which may result in a hazard to the environment, and other wildlife, or to other people? (Ie Botulism)

6. What benefits (to the environment, to yourselves, to hunters and to society in general) do you see in allowing hunters to shoot far more birds than they can possibly eat, store, or even share with friends?

7. What studies have you conducted or referred to when considering the effect of steel shot on birds which are injured but not killed or retrieved? Please answer with regard to the following:

a How steel shot breaks down when remaining in the birds tissue and the evidence of
b. inflammation
c. pain
d. suffering
e. survival rates
f. Percentage of birds which may survive and recover from the initial injury but be unable to fly, or walk as a result, and what the survival rates, time frames and outcomes are for those birds?
g. What percentage of shot, but not killed or retrieved, birds are being left with shot lodged in tissue and where in the tissue this is likely to be?

8. Where you are not able to provide specific studies and reference specific findings in those studies to answer the above questions, please explain how you determine bag limits with regards to the considerations above if you have no proper evidence to use in your decision?

9. What is the relationship between the NZ Wildlife Act, and any other NZ legislation which relates to game bird hunting, and the NZ Animal welfare act. Specifically, I would like to understand your position where the game bird hunting legislation might allow activities which would normally breach the animal welfare act? Is there any requirement for game bird hunting to meet the requirements of the animal welfare act in NZ, and if not, what is the reason for this (both legal reasons/legal exclusions, and moral/ethical reasons).

Yours faithfully,

Ms Hartley

Dear CSI,

Thank you for your response. To clarify your initial point in your response, regarding a bag limit of 5 grey ducks and 2 Shoveler, I would like some clarification on this please?
(Additional questions may be sent separately on other points of your response and this message relates only to your response quoting a bag limit for the South Island of 5 grey ducks)

Maybe I am misreading something, but published fish and game bag limits for grey duck are as follows: (apologies for any formatting, however this site does not seem to allow me to upload any file attachments - at least not from my iPad - so I cannot upload a screenshot from the below url, and I have simply pasted its contents that relate to the south Island 2024 bag limits for the collective category of grey and mallard ducks (no separate Grey Duck Category is stated on this url):

https://www.fishandgame.org.nz/game-bird...

"South Island Regions & Rules – Mallard and Grey Duck 2024
Fish & Game Region

Season Length

Daily Bag Limit

Nelson-Marlborough

4 May – 28 July 2024

8 (all areas)

West Coast

4 May – 28 July 2024

15 (all areas - aggregate bag)

North Canterbury

4 & 5 May 2024

6 May - 28 July 2024

1 & 2 and 8 & 9 Feb 2025

25 (all areas)

15 (all areas)

10 (only over agricultural grain crops/green feed paddocks more than 200m from any water body.)

Central South Island

4 May – 28 July 2024

1 & 2 and 8 & 9 Feb 2025

20 (all areas)

10 (Area C only)

Otago

4 May – 28 July 2024

25 (all areas)

Southland

4 & 5 May 2024

6 May - 21 Jul 2024

20

10"

All of the above limits are >5. Are Fish and Game misinformed?

In the event there is another, lower bag limit of 5 which is presumably specific to grey ducks and is not published on fish and game nz, can you please supply the following information:

Could you please supply URL where this limit is publicised?

And if there is a separate limit of 5 for Grey ducks only, which excludes Mallard ducks:

Can you please explain how it would be realistically possible, if there is a separate limit for grey and shoveler ducks, for hunters to:

1. Determine from up to 40m distance, the difference between a mallard or grey duck in flight?
2. Why, in the unlikely event every hunter can somehow differentiate between a flying mallard and a flying grey duck at a distance, it has been determined that a bag limit of up to 5 birds per day, per hunter, of such a critically endangered species as the grey duck, is a logical and sensible limit?
3. (If you would like me to provide evidence of the extremely threatened status of the NZ Grey duck, please say so in your response and I will provide this).
Regards
Kim