Hi everybody -
Thanks to Wim Vader for his thoughtful and informed comments on banding, as
well to others, such as Andrew Geering, who have tried to add some balance
to the issue. Just a further comments on the local context:
For Marilyn and others who do not know what cannon-netting is; it is simply
a method of catching birds by simultaneously firing projectiles that pull a
net over a group of birds. The method is used in Australia by government
departments on various types of birds for various purposes. It is also
used by wader study groups on (usually) migratory waders (shorebirds).
The qualifications required to obtain cannon-netting licences in Australia,
as well as the protocols governing the use of cannon-nets, have become
increasingly stringent over the years. There is a mortality rate
associated with cannon-netting (as with mist-netting) but the protocols are
always under review with the objective of reducing mortality to the
asymptotic zero. The figure of 4% that was mentioned is far too high; from
memory, some years ago, the figure was around 4 per thousand. It may well
be much less these days. It is certainly unfair to to allude to events
that occurred many years ago - and especially those that took place in
other countries, possibly by untrained and inexperienced people - as if
they represent the situation today.
It may be that, for some people, 0.4% (or 0.000004%) is still too high.
However, mortality of migratory waders for other reasons, such as hunting
for meat within the East Asian / Australasian migratory flyway, is
overwhelmingly more significant. Hundreds of thousands of birds (of the
species that breed in northern Asia and visit Australia during our summer)
are killed for food annually in Asia on migration. This may well be having
an impact on the populations of some species (e.g. Great Knot).
If we want to do something about the conservation problems of migratory
waders in our flyway (an enormous ask given that the problem spans numerous
countries, many of which are heavily populated and rapidly increasing
industrial development - including reclamation of intertidal mudflats) we
need information about the biology and the movements of the birds. This is
what wader research in Australia is about - working out the feeding
ecology, the migratory strategies and pathways, the natural cycles and
fluctuations in population numbers. The leg-flagging program alone has
provided a huge amount of new information about the different migration
routes followed by different species, and the critical staging sites for them.
It is the availability of this steadily accumulating information that is
allowing the establishment of a shorebird site network across Asia and
Australasia. For further information on this see:
http://www.environment.gov.au/water/wetlands/mwp/infosrn1.htm
I am convinced that the benefits to the conservation wader populations now
and into the future far outweigh the relatively tiny number of casualties
incurred in the course of the necessary research. Others must make up
their minds about the issue, using the evidence available; if someone's
personal philosophy places the welfare of individual organisms above the
conservation of biological diversity generally, then maybe they will never
be convinced by this argument. I hope we can agree to differ amicably.
Meanwhile, in the wader study groups there are hundreds of dedicated people
working to study and conserve the birds they feel passionate about. These
people are volunteers and the work they do is often hard, painful and
exhausting. I can respect those folk who have sent messages to the list
seeking further information about their methods, pointing out the
inadequacies and accidents they may have experienced, or questioning the
philosophical basis for such research. I have no respect whatsoever for
pseudonymous barbs containing mischievous misinformation and will not
respond to them.
I do recommend that those people who are largely ignorant of the work of
the wader study groups take the time to find out a little more about their
work and possibly help them out by actively applying their own passion in a
constructive way towards bird conservation.
Cheers,
Hugo
Hugo Phillipps
Communications Coordinator
Birds Australia
415 Riversdale Road
HAWTHORN EAST 3123, Australia
Tel: (03) 9882 2622, fax: (03) 9882 2677
Email: <>
Web site: <http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au>
Are you a member of Birds Australia? If not, why not join us?
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
