BIRDS AND TROUT

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 20, 25 January 1938, Page 8

BIRDS AND TROUT

(To the Editor.)

Sir,—One reads now in the Press that j white-fronted tern and black-billed gull are attacking trout. Some time back we were told that .black-backed gulls also attacked trout. All of these birds are surface feeders. Nevertheless the Minister of Internal Affairs is to be asked to remove protection from the tern and black-billed gull. From another source, complaints are made that the black-backed gull is playing sad havoc with the eggs and nestlings of tern and black-billed gull, so if acclimatisation societies destroy the black-backed gull, the tern and lesser gull shall be given greater facilities to increase. Verily, the biological sense of these sporting bodies does appear usually to be far astray. The real reason for the attack on the trout by these tern and gull is much further afield than along the riverbanks, and it looks as though acclimatisation societies more or less are being "hoist by their own petard." For years past they have advocated, and some of them are still advocating the non-destruction of deer. Now, owing to the operations of these destructive agents, the burning and overgrazing of. such country as the mountain tussock land, the wholesale destruction by man of our forests, etc., the water run-off is not' properly controlled with the result that at times, we have excessive floods, and at other times extremely low water. In this latter case, the fish are at a considerable disadvantage owing to the water being warm and restricted in many places to practically, a series of shallows, producing an El Dorado food supply for the surface feeding gull. But do not let us blame the gulls for taking advantage of the present circumstances, but rather blame man for his past mismanagement of forest and wild life matters.—l am, etc.,

E. V. SANDERSON, President of Forest and Bird Protection Society.