Thread: 1080 KILLING FISH

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Tests reveal risk in 1080-zone trout | Stuff.co.nz

The poison found in nature is potassium fluoroacetate, which has a bitter taste which is a natural deterrent to browsing animals.

The poison used in compound 1080 is sodium monofluoroacetate which is a manufactured compound and designed to be almost tasteless and which was originally registered as an insecticide in the UK. However, authorities recognised the extreme potency and danger to users, and the fact that is could be readily taken up through the root / transpiration systems of plants, and was proven to be capable of poisoning sap sucking insects feeding on the sap of those plants feeding on the underside of leaves. It was subsequently banned from use there.

While it is commonly described as a vertebrate poison by applicants such as DoC and the Animal Health Board it is not generally recognised (some say deliberately) by permit issuing authorities or DoC or the AHB that it is an extremely lethal insecticide as well. Scientist Mike Meads was a world renowned specialist in invertebrates and both he and Notman pointed out the potential dangers and risks of poisoning the base of the environmental food chain in NZ by use of 1080. Both of them lost their jobs very soon after producing their research. DoC actively sought to discredit Meads and refused to publish his peer reviewed findings. DoC has put very minimal effort into further investigation of the implications of 1080 effects on the over all structure of forest biomass since the ERMA review in 2007 where ESPC (now NZWBM) along with several other submitters provided Mead's and Notman's science as evidence. The ERMA review (EPA) could not ignore this evidence but while recommending several courses of further research, is actually powerless to ensure such research is carried out. Another specialist toxicology professor from Victoria University described the "official" effort to find the potential dangers (for instance the long term dangers such as effects on DNA in pregnant women) as being equivalent to using a large meshed snapper net to try to catch a sprat. In other words, the correct protocols and resources for investigation did not exist or were not being applied in NZ. That scientists interview can be seen on the DVD "A Shadow of Doubt".
Very many persons in NZ and worldwide are extremely concerned at the NZ government's apparent tendency to suppress information and research effort that might reveal the potential long term harm caused by 1080 use.

Incidentally; can anyone on here tell me in detail what the over all diet is of Keruru. I have watched these birds feeding voraciously on kowhai leaves and my dogs have pointed them on the ground in forests while deer stalking or pheasant hunting. (Kaka also must have a very strong scent. My dogs will identify Kaka in trees from several hundred metres distance.) I assume Keruru are feeding on the ground, on fallen berries, but I have no proof of their ground feeding diet. Perhaps they also feed on fallen leaves, other vegetation , or even worms and insects? Could somebody enlighten me please.