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#hunting — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #hunting, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Waiau River - photos of Whitebaiting and the river mouth in decades past, c1980s

    Whitebaiting, Waiau River and Waiau Mouth. This is what the whitebaiting scene at the Waiau River looked like in 'the season', many years ago now. This series of images, recently donated to the Community Archive, were used to commemorate the new 2024 Whitebaiting season. The new 2025 season starts today on 1 September. We wish all whitebaiters on our river a safe, successful season, and encourage the environmental protection of these taonga, so future generations can also enjoy whitebaiting as we do.

    IMAGES:
    Photo 1 - whitebaiting on the Waiau River at the mouth, in days past
    Photo 2 - some of the whitebaiting caravans parked up at Waiau River
    Photos 3 - scenes of the Waiau River at the Waiau mouth in days past
    Photographs by Ron McDowell & kindly donated to CWA. Licensed CC BY

    WHITEBAIT:
    The Department of Conservation or DOC, summarises what we know as 'Whitebait, as being, "the juveniles of six species of fish, five of which are migratory galaxiids: inanga, banded kōkopu, giant kōkopu, kōaro and shortjaw kōkopu. The sixth species is common smelt." Doc further inform us that the whitebait caught locally from the Waiau River, are predominantly inanga. These are "found in a wide variety of habitats, from tiny creeks, to coastal rivers, lowland streams, lakes and wetlands." Inanga are small and most only survive a year or so, reaching about 100mm in length – the longest one found on record, was 190 mm.

    "Because they are poor climbers, inanga are usually found near the coast. Their silvery belly and somewhat forked tail make them easy to distinguish. Found in places as far flung as Chile, Australia and Argentina, inanga are the most widely distributed native freshwater fish in the world," records DOC. They are also Aotearoa New Zealand’s most commonly caught species of whitebait. But as well as this, their population is in decline. Almost all of the Whitebait species are either in decline or threatened, hence new restrictions on catching them. If we want future generations to be able to carry on our tradition of whitebaiting, we need to preserve this previous taonga/treasure.

    Whitebaiting is a favourite cherished sport and time-honoured tradition in many parts of the country, and especially at the Waiau River Mouth. Local's have whitebaited here for generations, and can tell tales of times when the beach stretched all the way along Bluecliffs, with road access and parking. In recent times the Waiau Mouth has eroded into the sea, taking a lot of land with it, forever changing the landscape of the river mouth and whitebaiting.

    But the landscape at the Waiau Mouth is not the only thing that has now changed. To help protect these taonga or treasured fish species and their habitats for the future, there is now a shorter season and more set rules. For 2024 on the Waiau River in Western Murihiku Southland, the season ran between September 1 & October 30, with whitebaiting only permitted on those days between 5am to 8pm, or 6am to 9pm during daylight savings. The 2025 season is also running from 1 Sept to 30 October.

    Now, each person can only have one whitebait net operating at any given time, and this must be attended at all times. The mouth of the net is not allowed to be wider than 4.5 meters. Also, you cannot fish by structures like bridges, culverts, even river junctions. This is to protect these vulnerable fish stocks. If everyone follows the rules, we can all help maintain a healthy river ecosystem, and ensure that whitebait can continue to thrive for the future.

    The new regulations which have recently been put into place, are being enforced in a joint effort between Police and DoC. All whitebaiters were notified and encouraged to educate themselves on the new rules and regulations ahead of the 2024 season. It was pleasing to read in a news article from this year, that a patrol of the Waiau River in an effort to ensure adherence to the new regulations, undertaken in late August 2024, there were no reported violations of early whitebaiting. However, there were some later violations of the rules which restricts nighttime whitebaiting.

    WAIAU TRUST WHITEBAIT HABITAT:
    This project has a focus on the creation of rearing habitats for whitebait, which in turn, helps a diverse range of wildlife which reside or migrate to this coastal environment. According to the Waiau Trust's website (see more in Place Notes), "Adult fish spawn in vegetation at the margins of tidal wetlands and streams, during spring tides in the months of February to April. The fertilised eggs...
    Central and Western Murihiku Southland Archive via DigitalNZ

    api.digitalnz.org/records/5597

    #Murihiku #Southland #Hunting #GreatOutdoors #WaiauRiverMouth #TeWaewaeBay #WildFoodGathering #SouthWestCoast #WaiauDistrict #WaiauRiver #Whitebaiting #Waiau #WaiauMouth #Fishing #Whitebait #Erosion #CoastalErosion #WhitebaitHabitat #Galaxiids #Inanga #WaiauTrust #SouthCoast

  2. What good are #TreatyRights if the fish are poisoned?

    Monday, July 14, 2025
    By George Ochenski, Daily Montanan

    "By virtually any measure, the #ConfederatedSalishKootenai Tribal Nation is an incredible success story against all odds. Forcibly removed from their homeland in the Bitterroot Valley, despite not having waged war against the white settlers or army, their own '#TrailOfTears' brought them to the Flathead Valley to live within the boundaries of the vastly reduced lands they retained in the #HellgateTreatyOf1855.

    "Although the #HellgateTreaty is widely regarded as one of the best treaties signed by any of the nation’s #IndigenousPeople, even land supposedly reserved for the exclusive habitation of the #SalishKootenai was opened to purchase by non-tribal #settlers by the #DawesAct of 1887.

    "The act’s intentions were to allocate reservation lands the tribes already owned to individual families as private property and, as part of the 'civilization' of #NativeAmericans, it required tribal members to register with the federal government to receive their 'allotment.'

    "The entire debacle was part of the #AllotmentAndAssimilationEra from 1887 to 1934. Simply put, the federal government’s plan was to force Native Americans to be 'assimilated' into #EuropeanAmerican culture.

    "Importantly, any reservation lands not allocated to tribal members was deemed
    'surplus' land and opened to purchase by non-tribal settlers. This excursion into #ReservationLands was further exacerbated by the ability of tribal members to sell their allotment parcels to non-tribal members.

    "The fracturing of the Salish-Kootenai’s tribal lands through sales to non-tribal members continues to cause serious problems today, including the long and on-going battle to retain their #water, #hunting and #fishing #TreatyRights.

    "Article III of the Hellgate Treaty could not be more clear regarding the Tribe’s fishing rights: 'The exclusive right of taking fish in all the streams running through or bordering said reservation is further secured to said Indians; as also the right of taking fish at all usual and accustomed places…'

    "Yet, just last month the Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribal Nation issued a very serious warning to tribal members regarding the fish they have treaty rights to catch because they are poisoned.

    CSKT Fish Consumption Advisory

    "The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes issued a fish consumption advisory on June 24, 2025, warning tribal citizens not to eat fish due to the presence of Polychlorinated biphenyls (#PCBs), #dioxins and #furans at levels deemed unsafe for humans: Source: Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

    "The #FishConsumptionAdvisory urges 'all tribal members to avoid consuming all species and sizes of fish harvested from the lower Clark Fork River from the Bitterroot River near Missoula to the Flathead River near Paradise. Recent testing has confirmed the presence of polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxins and furans in fish at levels that are unsafe for consumption by Tribal peoples. It is also advisable to avoid consuming rainbow trout and northern pike harvested from the Bitterroot River and the upper Clark Fork River above the Bitterroot River to Rock Creek, and, to avoid consuming rainbow trout from the Blackfoot River.

    "As the Advisory explains: 'These contaminants pose a health risk to all fish consumers, and an even greater health risk to the most sensitive members of the Tribal population including women of child bearing age, pregnant nursing women, and young children. These contaminants have been linked to negative health effects in the immune, and nervous systems and may be associated with birth defects…PCBs and dioxins are classified as probable and definite #HumanCarcinogens, respectively.'

    "So what good are treaty fishing rights if you can’t eat the fish because they’re poisoned? Are they really 'rights' — or is this just another in our nation’s long and shameful history of abrogating its treaties with Native Americans?

    "Moreover, #Montana’s poison fish affect us all. Just as our government has failed the Salish-Kootenai, they have likewise failed to uphold our rights to the 'swimmable/fishable waters' guaranteed by the #CleanWaterAct — because no one, tribal or non-tribal, is immune to poisoned fish."

    Source:
    indianz.com/News/2025/07/14/ge

    #WaterIsLife #TribalNations #NativeAmericanNews #WaterPollution #PoisonedFish #StolenLand #LandBack #EPAFail