Thread: Hurunui dead geese

Was up the hurunui between sisters stream and lake sumner on Monday. No fish around but up to 100 dead geese floating in the shallows. Didn’t appear to be shot and most were floating the right way up. Looked like either poisoning or disease to me. Anyone seen this before? Not sure if relevant to fish numbers either. Didymo was quite bad.

would have been good to take a couple to Fish and Game for autopsy - give them something to do instead of picking on mum and kids fishing lol - but seriously would be good to know - we can get vagrant birds coming in from overseas and well what might they have - we all need to be vigilant - vagrants well any bird blown over here or arrives under own steam - one I remember well was a Northern Shoveler duck in the pond at Gisborne park - native to Papua New Guinea -looked very out of place amongst the mallards

I told doc and they said to report it to mpi which I have just done. They all looked fairly fresh. I also tried to call fish and game but no answer, probably all busy bullying children.

shallows of the stream or lake? botulism often builds up and wipes out heaps like that all of the sudden,

In the stream, halfway between lake and swing bridge

im not familiar with the area but it being a stream probably means the botulism could be on the river banks in their poo

I thought botulism was a warm weather pond issue so I might be pointing in the wrong direction

re the fish&game comments -hows abouts you give it a bloody rest till youre in full possession of the facts .I happen to know the F&G guys involved and theres obviously more to the story than a "sobbing"mother" lets on. my son had the same happen to him years ago on the coast but he didn t make a big bloody scene about it. F&G also gave him back his confiscated gear too!

re the geese=ho hum whats to say a little 1080 wasnt strategically spread ?? to cull this specific mob,.just a thought .

The amount of crap those things produce I don't think time of year matters. Watched over 100 fly past this morning on the way to another farmers saved paddock.

Been thinking on this. I surmise that it is odd that so many as a large mob are drifting down a river deaf, and right side up. I speculate that all these birds died quite suddenly . I think it possible that this large mob were killed as the result of injesting poisoned bait laid in a dry land feeding area, then flying to river to roost where the poison took effect. The resulting pollution of the river with the carcasses is likely an illegal consequence of what could have been a deliberate and cruel action. I think some carcasses should be recovered if possible for analysis and the police involved.
Just my surmise.

No point telling fish and game about Canada geese, they have had nothing to do with them since geese were removed from the schedule.

Originally Posted by kotuku

re the fish&game comments -hows abouts you give it a bloody rest till youre in full possession of the facts .I happen to know the F&G guys involved and theres obviously more to the story than a "sobbing"mother" lets on. my son had the same happen to him years ago on the coast but he didn t make a big bloody scene about it. F&G also gave him back his confiscated gear too!

re the geese=ho hum whats to say a little 1080 wasnt strategically spread ?? to cull this specific mob,.just a thought .

facts 1080 thats about as far from facts as one could get - if you have facts from the Fand G picking on a lady and her kids fishing do share or we leave it in the 1080 to blame scenario

Anyway…. poisoning was my first thought. Telling fish and game/doc was not so much about the dead geese but water quality and possible secondary posioning.

someone could have poisoned them no agency using 1080 would risk the ability to use it by such a stupid act so rule that out and 1080 has diminished effect on birds - there are a range of toxins though that the unscrupulous could use - those going down that path though have little idea on the effects their action could take - such as bi kill on endemic species - I go back to my original point about biopsy - and it could be a natural toxin involved as some have said - but if someone did put out a toxin to kill geese they need to be stopped before they tip up non target specie's and that could be a wide range fish birds invertebrates the list goes on

I spoke to a vet that worked for mpi, sounded like they may have sent someone up for a look and to retrieve some for autopsy. Got the impression they were only worried about disease.

if you get some news please let us know keen to find out