Jonathan Milne: To cull protected fur seals or to consign muttonbirding to history?

Saturday, 27 October 2018

Tītī are abundant for now, but Rakiura Maori fear a population collapse similar to the puffin's, if they are not protected from marauding fur seals.

OPINION: We all care about conservation. We pay our annual subscriptions to Forest & Bird, put Greenpeace bumper stickers on our cars, plant native grasses on the street verge, or sign petitions to close the kauri forests to the threat of dieback disease.

That's good. But it's easy to care – it's far more difficult to make the tough calls needed to maintain a balanced ecosystem.

Public leadership is needed in weighing the importance of protecting fur seals against saving our unique and endangered muttonbirding culture.

This week, conservation officials are expected to meet with Rakiura (Stewart island) Māori to discuss their call to control protected kekeno (fur seals) on the 21 Tītī islands where their people have harvested muttonbird chicks every autumn for generations beyond memory.

After visiting Stewart Island last year, I learnt that neither the tītī (muttonbird) nor the kekeno is now endangered. The kekeno population was devastated by sealing in the 19th century, but has now recovered to healthy levels (200,000 at the last official count in 2001). The tītī population is too big to put a number on.

* The 14yo Kiwi taking on the world's best

* If these are Kiwi values, I don't want a bar of them**

What is endangered is the unique cultural practice of muttonbirding. And the kekeno taking over the Tītī Islands in Foveaux Strait are competing for habitat, flattening the tītī burrows and threatening the 500-or-so Rakiura Maori who still come ashore to snare the young birds. This is said to be the only such traditional wildlife harvest in the southern hemisphere.

Rakiura Tītī Islands Administering Body chairman Tane Davis wants to be able to 'control' the marauding seals. What that means is either a targeted cull on several of the islands, or developing new technologies to keep the kekeno away.

Cue the outcry from the armchair environmentalists, alarmed at the idea of big-eyed baby seals being clubbed to death.

But conservation is about more than protecting wildlife. It is about playing our role in managing entire ecosystems.

Tui Wikohika from Raetihi is relying on public support to help him realise his dream of snowboarding against the best in the world.

That's why it's time to see some leadership from Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage, who has kicked this tough call to her departmental officials to deal with this week.

From a family of five brothers and sisters, Tui Wikohika from Raetihi had to turn down the chance to attend a national snowboard training camp last year, because the family couldn't afford it.

This is not a decision for the technocrats, alone. It's not a decision for Rakiura Māori, alone. This is a conservation decision in which we all have a stake.

TUI WINS SCHOLARSHIP

Last week we told the story of Tui Wikohika, the young snowboarder with golden dreams but a copper budget. The 14-year-old missed out on the chance of a lifetime to join a national training camp at Cardrona a year ago, because there just wasn't the cash. So dad Peter Wikohika bought him an ice cream – and Tui put a brave face on it and went back to his after-school job stacking shelves at the supermarket in nearby Ohakune.

I was privileged to help judge the AMP National Scholarships and watched this week as a tearful Tui stepped onstage to accept a scholarship that will help him travel to Colorado, Canada and the Cardrona high performance programme next year.

And talking to his parents Peter and Lauren, I was humbled not just by Tui's raw talent and hard work, but by the proud backing of a family and community that had already invested so much in him. You can't put a value on that.

Tui's family have set up a PledgeMe page for others who want to support him.