Editor:
Thanks to Connie Jordison for her article last week Duck hunters in Davis Bay ruffle feathers (CR, 20th January). A lot of people did have their feathers ruffled by this incident, and previously by the same company in December in Sargeant Bay. The federal and provincial hunting and trapping regulations are large documents, and their interpretation and enforcement should be left to the relevant authorities.
As president of the Sunshine Coast Natural History Society my constituency is local naturalists. Our concern is not with legalities but with ethics. The company concerned Adventures with Mayhem Outfitters (bad name) happens to be American, and their PR blurb states “If you’re looking to …hunt some of the rarest waterfowl in the nation you’ve come to the right place!” This being 2023 and the world in the middle of an extinction event one might have thought that such Neanderthal sensibility had gone the way of the buffalo. You could also justifiably raise the issue of food versus trophy hunting, but Mayhem have confirmed this was a trophy hunt.
In passing I will mention that the White Islets (off Wilson Creek) and Chapman Creek estuary/ Mission Point are joined together in an Important Bird Area designation that helps to protect the habitat of harlequin ducks, three of which were shot by the Mayhem folks.
Tony Greenfield, SC Natural History Society
