Tourist fined for shooting endangered blue duck
A Danish tourist will have to pay $10,000 for shooting a rare and endangered native blue duck, a whio, in South Westland.
Rasmus Bjerre Zetner Neilson, a 24-year-old student, will borrow money from his parents to pay the fine, and will then spend years paying it back.
Neilson, an experienced hunter, was in New Zealand for a three month holiday when he shot the whio after mistaking it for a mallard, defence counsel Richard Maze told the Christchurch District Court.
He pleaded guilty to charges of killing absolutely protected wildlife and hunting without a permit.
When he arrived in New Zealand in mid-February he obtained a firearms licence and and bought a .270 calibre Mossberg rifle and ammunition from a gun shop in Christchurch.
He was with a group of five Danish companions when he flew by helicopter into the Waitangi Forest Conservation Area in South Westland. Neilson did not obtain the necessary hunting permit from the Department of Conservation, before hunting for several days and shooting a chamois and two tahr.
On the evening of March 9, he and a companion were at Scone Hut, and went to a creek to sight in his rifle.
Neilson set up a cardboard box and fired several shots at it from about 100m.
The Department said: “At this time a whio, which is a highly territorial species, flew in to investigate the disturbance. The defendant took aim at the whio and shot it through the chest, killing it instantly.”
Two local hunters heard the shots and investigated. When they told Neilson he had shot a protected species, he apologised, and disposed of the duck in nearby bush.
The hunters made a complaint with DOC and Neilson was later interviewed at Wanaka. He said he had shot the duck “because I was a big idiot, brain dead”.
Mr Maze said Neilson’s fault lay in a lack of research and one moment of poor judgment.
In the fading light, he had mistaken the blue duck for a mallard which were common in Denmark, and he had seen them many times in New Zealand.
He is due to fly home on May 10, and the DOC had agreed that a fine could be imposed rather than a penalty that would require him to stay in the country.
A Ngai Tahu spokesman had told DOC that they were distressed to hear about the senseless killing of the protected bird.
DOC prosecutor Susan Newell said that with the duck hunting season opening on Saturday, the case emphasised the need for hunters to identify their targets and know what they were shooting.
Judge Brian Callaghan noted that there were reducing numbers of whio in New Zealand. There were between 2500 and 3000 of the ducks living in New Zealand, and the population was declining in the South Island.
It was an iconic species, which featured on the $10 note. It was a taonga (treasure) for Ngai Tahu.
The shooting was “the higher end of carelessness, or recklessness”, he said.
A fine was the only realistic penalty, he said, imposing fines and prosecution costs totalling $10,000 and ordering forfeiture of the rifle and hunting equipment.
Category: News
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