The bulk load of broken moa bones Roddy Scoles was selling on Trade Me, which he purchased around 2007. Photo / Supplied
The bulk load of broken moa bones Roddy Scoles was selling on Trade Me, which he purchased around 2007. Photo / Supplied
New legislation could be implemented to crack down on a growing number of people selling moa bones and eggshells.
Sales of moa bones and egg shells had increased with the growth of internet trading sites, according to Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage.
The nature of these sites meant there was often no way of proving where the remains came from, Sage said, meaning "buyers should beware".
While the bones, feathers, skins and eggs of living native species are protected, and cannot be bought or sold, the legislation doesn't apply to extinct species.
It is only illegal to sell off the remains of extinct species if they were found on protected land, or at an archaeological site.
Two moa and an eagle in an illustration by John Megahan. The moa is believed to have died off around 1300 AD. Image / John Megahan
According to records from online marketplace Trade Me, 60 auctions for moa bones, egg shells or fragments and carvings including moa bone have been listed on the site over the past year.
Trade Me head of trust and safety George Hiotakis said their team maintained a relationship with the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, and Heritage New Zealand, to ensure only legitimate moa bones were sold through the site.
"Our dedicated trust and safety team work hard to ensure our members can buy and sell with confidence and we monitor the site for misleading or illegitimate listings.
"If we were to become aware that a seller was attempting to sell illegitimate moa bones onsite we would pull the listing immediately and ban the member from the site," Hiotakis said.
Dunedin man Roddy Scoles has a live auction on Trade Me for a bulk lot of broken moa bones.
Scoles had purchased the bones about 12 years ago, and had been told they were found in Marlborough. He'd used them for projects when he was a primary school teacher, but more recently they had been sitting in a box at home.
Equipped with a bit of knowledge about birds, Scoles was fairly sure they were the real deal.
"Moa bones are quite distinctive - they kind of have a honeycomb texture to them.
"Not like beef bones or anything."
Scoles said he was passionate about protecting New Zealand's heritage and it would bother him to find out the bones had been obtained illegally.
"In some of the work I've done I've come across middens, stuff like that.
"You can just imagine the sort of people that go to that sort of place and look around hoping to find stuff like this."
Sage said the Department of Conservation was aware moa bones and egg shells were being traded.
Some of the remains were likely to have been obtained illegally from protected sites, she said.
"Unlawful excavation and removal of material from protected sites harms their scientific and cultural values," she said.
"It harms New Zealand's cultural values, including Māori cultural values, and destroys potential scientific information as archaeological and other sites are damaged to gain access to the material."
Sage said individual items offered for sale with no information about where they had come from had little scientific value.
She had asked DoC for advice on the most effective policy response, Sage said.
New regulations could be implemented that would prohibit the sale of moa bones, egg shells and the remains of other extinct species, without the Conservation Minister's consent.
"A prohibition on sale would remove the commercial incentive to disturb natural bone deposition sites and archaeological sites and help preserve the conservation, cultural, and scientific values of these sites."
