Report on kereru shooting accused due

Photo / Glenn Jeffrey

The Department of Conservation (DoC) hopes to complete a report today on the Norwegians suspected of having been involved in slaughtering protected native kereru in New Zealand.

The report, prepared by DoC's national compliance team, will go to Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson's office and also to Norwegian authorities with a number of recommendations, said DoC senior communications adviser Reuben Williams.

DoC has identified the five Norwegian men who posted a clip on YouTube last month of them shooting a wide range of New Zealand wildlife over five weeks during summer.

The clip showed a hunter shooting at a kereru, the bird falling from a tree and one of the tourists holding two dead, bloody birds.

The video also showed the tourists shooting a paradise shelduck with a rifle. Paradise ducks can only legally be hunted with licence and a shotgun during the shooting season starting in May. Illegal hunting can bring a fine of up to $5000.

DoC initially looked at pursuing the men, who have since returned to Norway, through an international treaty Cites (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) to which both countries are signatories.

However, that treaty was more to do with trade and it was likely the five would be pursued under New Zealand's Wildlife Act, Mr Williams said.

The kereru is an absolutely protected species and under the Act the maximum penalty for killing such protected wildlife is a $100,000 fine and up to a year in jail.

It would be up to the Norwegian National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime (Okokrim) to decide what action it would take against the men, Mr Williams said.

- NZPA