Fish and Game Otago will continue to try to get the Otago Regional Council to discuss issues around 1080 poisoning and gamebird "by-kill" after a request to have ground bait screened was turned down.
At Otago Fish and Game's council meeting in Tapanui yesterday, general manager Niall Watson said the response from the Otago Regional Council (ORC) on the issue so far had been a disappointment.
Fish and Game wrote to the ORC asking it to screen all rabbit poison baits used near upland game-bird populations to reduce the risk of birds dying after eating the highly toxic small bait. The regional council, which screens out smaller pieces of bait chaff for aerially laid poison, declined, saying there was not enough evidence screening would protect game birds.
Otago Fish and Game councillors said there were long-standing concerns about 1080's impact on smaller game birds.
Last week, Mr Watson told the Otago Daily Times screening of the chaff would be a precaution against by-kill, given more poisoning operations were being done because of higher rabbit numbers.
"And if they strengthen the bait, they will have to be even more careful," he said yesterday.
During discussion about the issue, Fish and Game councillor Vicky Whyte asked why rabbit shooting was not promoted as a means of keeping the rabbit population down.
Cr Dan Rae said a small number of Otago properties employed rabbiters to keep populations down while other properties had high numbers of rabbits.
"One of the particular concerns is the Cromwell basin - there is a large number of rabbits seen coming out of livestock properties.""You can be worried about cow [dung] getting in to the water but then you put [out] poison, leaching into our waterways," Cr Whyte said.
