Illtreating seabirds punished

GREYMOUTH: Two fishermen on the boat Impulse II were sentenced in the Greymouth District Court this week to community work after pleading guilty to wilfully illtreating seabirds, including hitting them with a gaff and a high pressure hose.

Bevan Rae Ikink (24), of Mapua, committed the offences between 2012 and 2014.

Ikink was a deckhand on the

Impulse II, based out of the West Coast.

The summary of facts says at the end of 2012, Ikink and another crew member started illtreating seabirds.

Some of these acts were reported to the owner of the

Impulse II.

‘‘Despite this action the acts escalated to the extent that Mr Ikink and the other crew member started using gaffs to hit seabirds.’’

He took a ‘‘golf swing’’ at a seabird with a gaff while it was floating on the water, which appeared to knock it out.

While in this state the seabird was unable to defend itself and was attacked by other seabirds with the possible result it was killed.

He also lured a Cape petrel to the rear of the boat and used a gaff to hit the bird on the head, killing it.

The skipper again spoke to them, but after a sixmonth or so lapse, Mr Ikink and the other crew member started kicking birds and hitting them with a gaff.

He also cornered an albatross, kicked it and threw it overboard, where it was attacked by other seabirds.

Robert Keith Dunick, of Invercargill, ‘‘laughed when Bevan Rae Ikink took a golf swing at a seabird’’.

On about 12 or more different occasions he either chased seabirds into a corner and kicked them with steelcapped gumboots or hit them with a gaff.

Just David Saunders sentenced Ikink to 200 hours’ community work and ordered him to pay $1000 to the prosecution, and Dunick to 125 hours’ community work. — Greymouth Star