Hands-on scientist who saw big picture on conservation
Shaun O’Connor environmentalist b February 14, 1967 d February 3, 2021
Surfer, wild-food forager, birdrecovery expert and big-picture strategic thinker.
Those were just some of the attributes that Shaun O’Connor exhibited in a lengthy career that took him to Stewart and Chatham islands, Auckland Zoo, Mt Bruce and Australia.
Among those who spoke at his funeral was former Department of Conservation director-general Al Morrison.
Morrison oversaw a restructuring of DOC as he attempted to give it a greater community focus and the ability to work with community groups, iwi, local authorities, private landowners and businesses to attract more resources to conservation.
Not everyone within DOC supported what Morrison did, but one person who, perhaps surprisingly, was on board, was O’Connor.
Morrison said that for a hands-on scientist and bird recovery expert, the change in roles was dramatic, and he had nothing but respect for Shaun.
‘‘Shaun had a wide-picture view and his scientific work was only part of the puzzle in putting it together. In pursuit of that he became professionally restless, pushing outside his comfort zone into strategic leadership roles.’’
He had a deep respect for nature and accepted that DOC had to have a broader role than just looking after threatened species and DOC land.
‘‘He understood that if humanity does not live in harmony with nature, we are not going to survive as a species.’’
DOC colleague Paul Jansen worked on many bird recovery projects with O’Connor. He was an unconventional thinker who always looked for creative solutions, Jansen says.
His move into the policy field reflected his desire to find ‘‘entrepreneurial’’ solutions to saving the environment that were not available to him as a field-based bird-recovery expert.
Shaun Michael O’Connor spent his early life on Waiheke Island and was the son of well-known artist Denis O’Connor.
His upbringing was unconventional and from an early age he learnt to be resilient, often finding his own food and living off the land. He hunted all his life, everything from deer to quail, and was a lifelong forager who respected nature.
After completing a degree at Lincoln University, his first job in conservation was as a ranger on Stewart Island.
Finn O’Connor said his father always spoke fondly of his time on Stewart Island.
As well as a love of fieldwork, he gained many of the practical skills that would serve him well in later life.
After a short stint at Auckland Zoo, he took a job at Mt Bruce in Wairarapa, where he ran its captive breeding programme. Species he worked on included the shore plover and Campbell Island teal.
His job involved developing incubation techniques and handrearing grey faced petrel to develop techniques for taiko and other burrowing seabirds.
The Chatham Islands provided his next base. With its huge diversity of species, Finn said his father developed the skills that made him one of New Zealand’s foremost bird-recovery experts.
Although his speciality was shore and ocean going birds, he also worked on the black robin project, a species saved from extinction by the discovery of one last female.
In the early 2000s O’Connor returned to Wellington where he held various roles working with threatened species before switching to the strategy and policy field with DOC.
In 2017 he left DOC and, after a period working for himself, headed to New South Wales to work on the state government’s Saving Our Species project.
Although he worked in Australia for only a short time, he left a lasting impression.
His online tributes book featured many warm messages about the impact he made, including one from Polly Mitchell from
Sydney.
‘‘He was such a lovely, kind, generous and cheeky man, a pleasure to work with and have a beer with. He was always so passionate about saving the environment around us, and compassionate about his colleagues around him.’’
Hannah Lloyd held a similar view.
‘‘When Shaun came into the Saving our Species team he was a breath of fresh air. I always appreciated his sense of humour and ability to maintain perspective and focus on the big picture through challenging situations.’’
Finn said the strategic role he had with DOC was difficult for his father, who greatly missed the fieldwork. In later life he suffered from the ‘‘black dog of depression’’ and that eventually took its toll.
‘‘He just found himself in a rut and he did not know how to get out of it.’’
His memory of his father will be of a warm man who loved surfing, hunting, buying antiques on Trade Me and who instilled a love of the environment in everyone he met. ‘‘People just loved him.’’
He accompanied his father on trips to the Chatham Islands in recent years, where Shaun continued to do work on a wide range of bird recovery projects.
Finn was always amazed by his depth of knowledge and the respect other people had for him.
His death notice asked for donations to suicide prevention.
Morrison said the circumstances of his death left him with mixed emotions.
‘‘But the bedrock of these mixed emotions that endures is a lasting respect and affection for Shaun O’Connor, the accomplished scientist, the uncompromising environmentalist, the witty conversationalist, the engaging colleague. This is how I wish to remember him.’’
He is survived by his first wife, Coll, and partner Femke.