Fish and Game

CHIEF executive Martin Taylor (ODT, 12.7.20) tries to portray Fish and Game as holier than thou when it comes to water quality, but let’s not forget this organisation is the legal successor to the New Zealand Acclimatisation Society.

That body was responsible for bringing most pest species to New Zealand, including stoats, ferrets, weasels, possums, deer, trout, salmon, mallard ducks and most of the small, introduced bird species.

Not only do the introduced fish defecate and urinate continuously into our waterways but they also eat the native galaxiid and are mainly responsible for the decline of the native fish species. One only has to visit the Botanic Garden duck pond to appreciate the fouling of water these introduced ducks cause.

Our native bird population has been ravaged by the animals introduced by this organisation, and the detrimental effect of deer on our forests was monumental.

The Acclimatisation Society and its successor have never accepted responsibility for controlling or cleaning up the environmental disasters they inflicted on our native flora and fauna, so it is a bit rich for their chief executive to berate farmers.

After all, very little fecal matter from farms enters the waterways, but those millions of fish and ducks, well, they are defecating every day. Perhaps Fish and Game should start by cleaning up its own mess.

Peter Foster

Waikouaiti