Swan death sparks boat ban call

The dead swan is recovered from the waters of Henley Lake in Masterton.

The death of a white swan hit by a model powerboat on Henley Lake last weekend shocked onlookers and has rekindled calls for the boats to be banned from the lake.

Tauranga woman Paula Materman and a friend were walking round the lake in the early afternoon when the model boat collided with the swan, thought to be one of a nesting pair, and killed it.

Ms Materman said she was thankful her children had not seen the death of the gracious bird but believed other children probably saw what had happened and had every reason to be upset.

She said the swan had fluttered its feathers briefly then subsided.

The swan struck by a model boat drifts lifeless on Henley Lake.

"By the time it had drifted into our area, we were aware it was quite obviously dead.

"The powerboat people took a boat out and used a pole to fish the dead swan closer to them, then took it to one of the islands in the lake where I have been told it was left."

Ironically only moments before the swan was struck, Ms Materman had asked her companion what the outcome would be if one of the "beautiful birds" on the lake was hit and she had just taken a photograph of the swan literally a second or two before it was struck.

She also photographed its retrieval by the model boat club.

"Kids were walking around the lake, it would have been horrible for them to see," Ms Materman said.

She said apart from the death of the swan, she thought the presence of model powerboats on the lake was "quite rude".

"They had blocked off part of the walkway and had put up detour sign for others using the lake, and the racing, especially at the start of the races, was very noisy."

Robin Carlyon, who has on several occasions made submissions to Masterton District Council over the use of the lake, said yesterday it was fairly certain the swan killed was the mate of a swan nesting at the northern end of the lake.

In the past white swans had been brought up from Canterbury to colonise the lake, he said.

Mr Carlyon said the lake's management plan appeared to be aimless and model boats should be included in the ban of motorised craft using the lake.

"They make as much noise as big boats do," he said.

Wairarapa Model Power Boat Club's club captain Ray Ticehurst said it was a "straight-out" accident, which they reported to the SPCA.

He thinks the swans have been spooked by the diggers working on the island.

Their boats are capable of 80 to 90km/h and "if they fly out in front of us, that's what happens.

"You can't do anything about it.

"It's like someone running across the road in front of you."

He said the club was "really disappointed" to have killed the swan, but it was not a deliberate act.

The boats were worth a lot of money and the impact had badly damaged the boat.

They had hit ducks before, he said.

"It's just one of those things.

"Ducks dive down, they swim underwater, they can come up on our course."

Before a meet, he takes an outboard motorboat out, which has two large horns on the front.

"We chase all the bird life off the lake before we start."

He said the club adhered to high safety standards, including remote kill switches on boats if they got out of control.

"You don't want to be tangled up with a boat going at 90km/h," he said.

"You've only got to ask that poor swan."

On the subject of whether motorised boats should be allowed on the lake, Mr Ticehurst said the club provided an enjoyable spectator experience for Masterton.

"People come down and thoroughly enjoy it," he said.

"Elderly folk come down, sit in the car, and watch the boats."

The club has been in existence since the early '90s, but has had a resurgence in the past four years.