Quackery
Hobart Mercury, Page: 21. Tuesday, 15 January, 2008
I refer to Dr Woehler (Letters, January 7) urging Minister David Llewellyn not to declare duck season in Tasmania. Dr Woehler’s letter seems to imply duck hunting has a major effect on duck populations. This is at odds with conclusions from a report prepared in 2000 for the NSW Government. The report, Scientific Panel Review of Open Season for Waterfowl in NSW, states: “All scientific studies available to the review indicate that hunting has no effect on waterfowl populations” and “Populations of game birds have tended to decline rather than increase since hunting was banned in 1995”.
Dr Woehier’s letter seems to be contradictory. On one hand, Dr Woehler argues that game species have declined markedly. Yet in the next paragraph he reveals that protected swans have decreased.
The best people to advise the Minister are the Game Management Liaison Committee. Dr Woehler’s assertion that this committee “largely comprises shooters and farmers” and will always advise in favour of a season is insulting and smacks of an ideological agenda.
Hunters are the first to call for sustainability in any harvest.
Robert Brown MLC, The Shooters Party, NSW.
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