Cannon Netting Poll

[Ronald Orenstein <>]

At 10:09 AM 06/03/01 +1000, sonnenburg wrote:
> Let us hear from the
> critics!!

 From a North American perspective, I think that members of the list
should not consider simply what happens when cannon-netting occurs, but
why people do it in the first place.  Since waders are so highly
migratory, and pass through the territory of so many different countries,
it is absolutely essential for their conservation that we have the
clearest possible idea of the migration paths, staging areas, and
wintering grounds that must be protected to ensure the survival, not just
of the birds as a whole, but of each individual species.  This is
not simply a matter of gathering up the cash and protecting an area; the
information from procedures like cannon-netting may be essential
ammunition for those who are trying to persuade governments to act in the
birds' best interests, even to the extent of cooperating internationally
by means of legal instruments such as the Convention on Migratory Species
of Animals and its subsidiaries like the African-Eurasian Migratory
Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) (see http://www.wcmc.org.uk/cms/).

For details on a project involving the study of waders from Canada to
Brazil in Argentina, check out the website of the Western Atlantic
Shorebird Association (at
http://www.vex.net/~hopscotc/shorebirds/index.html.en), which is
operating an extensive program involving cannon netting.  From the
site:

"The first research project to be part of WASA is the International
Banding Project which is being led by Professor Allan Baker, Canada and
Patricia M. González, Argentina. This project is colour-banding Red Knots
(Calidris canutus rufa), Sanderlings (Calidris alba) and
Ruddy Turnstones (Arenaria interpres) along the Atlantic coast of
the Americas in an effort to establish their migratory strategies. 
The primary goals of this project are to:

·       

Assess
the population sizes for the three species, especially Red Knots, from
colour band resightings

·       

Find
arctic breeding areas for Red Knot and estimate annual rates of
recruitment for the population

·       

Monitor
the patterns of moult and fat deposition in migrating flocks

·       

Establish
the primary stopover sites for these shorebird species on the
Flyway"

I think that any discussion of the benefits or evils of this technique
will be incomplete without an assessment of the value of the information
it provides, and, for those that do not like it, some suggestion about
either why this data is not needed (which I certainly dispute) or how it
could be achieved in a way that they would support.

--
Ronald I. Orenstein                           Phone: (905) 820-7886
International Wildlife Coalition              Fax/Modem: (905) 569-0116
1825 Shady Creek Court                
Mississauga, Ontario, Canada L5L 3W2