Last weekend we learned of the death of three endangered sea lions after they had been shot at the Waitaki River mouth.
Doc operations director for the South Island Aaron Fleming says this is part of a disturbing trend of attacks on sea lions.
As our reporting has shown, at least six sea lions have been killed, five shot and one stabbed, in the South in the past year.
Public outrage at the deaths of three sea lions in the Catlins last year, and a reward for information leading to a conviction which last month rose from $5000 to $50,000, has sadly not been enough to unearth the culprit or culprits.
When we should be rejoicing about the return of sea lions to Otago’s coast, our delight is sullied by these horror stories.
We have also had increasing reports of instances of people harassing sea lions on our beaches and tourists getting too close to them.
Referring to the most recent killings, South Island Sea Lion Trust co-chairman Shaun McConkey compared the situation to what it would be like if people went out and shot kiwi as they began returning to the forest around Wellington.
On the Otago Peninsula, where 31 pups were born last year, and the number of births is edging towards the level which would give the area breeding colony status, there has been a call for better people and vehicle management.
Otago Peninsula Community Board chairman Paul Pope wants more funding and a more co-ordinated approach to the management of the issue, including more ‘‘boots on the ground’’ to help educate visitors about sea lions.
Whether there will be any appetite for that in these constrained times is unclear.
The best we might be able to hope for is increased vigilance by members of the public when they are visiting areas where there are sea lions.
Those who observe poor behaviour towards sea lions, and indeed any other wildlife, must not look the other way, but gather any relevant information and report their concerns to the Department of Conservation or the police as soon as they feel safe to do so.
Pay equity scrutiny
If the government hoped the fuss over its gutting of the pay equity scheme was over, perhaps its members should have been watching the hearings of the People’s Select Committee on Pay Equity this week. This unofficial group of 10 former women members of Parliament from different parties, brought together by the redoubtable Dame Marilyn Waring, held the first of its hearings in-person in Wellington, although most of the subsequent ones are expected to be online. Even watching from afar, it was easy to pick up the depth of feeling and determination of submitters.
Despite the gravity of the question and the anger around it, there was a warmth to the proceedings on that first day with former Labour minister Nania Mahuta in the chair. A nice touch was members standing to greet each new submitter.
Given the issue involved, it was ironic much of the media attention on the first day was on a male submitter, Tony McCombs, even if he was the great grandson of New Zealand’s first woman MP Elizabeth McCombs.
His view was that great-grandmother would have been outraged.
Those tempted to fall for the government’s simplistic sound bites about comparisons between jobs would do well to tune in to understand how the changes will make some claims impossible.
Yesterday, among the submitters was Dame Judy McGregor who said New Zealand had slumped from being the poster girl for gender equality to international pariah.
She has advised the Pay Equity Coalition Aotearoa has made an urgent appeal to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women to investigate what the group describes as a historic and deliberate regression of women’s economic and political rights in New Zealand.
This issue is not going away.
