Fishermen’s cruelty to seabirds exposed

Two fishermen who hit seabirds with barbed spears have been sentenced to community work for animal cruelty.

Bevan Rae Ikink, 24, of Mapua, and Robert Keith Dunick, 33, of Invercargill, were sentenced in the Greymouth District Court on Wednesday.

Ikink pleaded guilty to eight charges of wilfully ill-treating seabirds, including albatross and cape petrel, between April 2012 and August 2014, while working on board the Impulse II based out of the West Coast.

Dunick pleaded guilty to one charge of aiding and abetting Ikink to wilfully ill-treat seabirds, and three charges of ill-treating seabirds, including two mollymawk albatross.

According to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) summary of facts, the birds were seriously injured or killed. Some were endangered or threatened species.

MPI said some of the acts were reported to the vessel’s owner. Despite this, the acts escalated to the extent that Ikink and Dunick started using gaffs (a stick with a hook or barbed spear, for landing large fish) to hit seabirds.

A seabird was knocked unconscious when Ikink took a ‘‘golf’’ swing at it while it was floating on the water next to the boat. It was likely the bird was attacked and killed by other birds while unconscious.

He also killed a petrel after luring it to the back of the boat and hitting it on the head with a gaff.

Ikink and Dunick were warned by the skipper, and they promised to stop. There were no incidents for six months, but the pair began egging each other on, kicking the birds away or hitting them with a gaff.

MPI said that on 12 different occasions, Ikink and Dunick chased birds into a corner of the boat and kicked them with steel-toed boots or hit them with a gaff.

On up to 30 occasions, Ikink sprayed birds with a highpressure hose.

Again, they were spoken to by the skipper, but after another six months they began to hit the birds again. A mollymawk was punched and hit around the head and thrown back into the sea.

Judge David Saunders sentenced Ikink to 200 hours’ community work. Dunick was sentenced to 125 hours’ community work.