Game ducks may go scot-free in Southland’s Awarua Bay if an effort to preserve the southern New Zealand dotterel’s habitat is successful.

Plans to advocate for a no-shooting zone in the bay are being discussed by the Department of Conservation (DOC) in collaboration with Fish & Game and the regional council, Environment Southland.

The Southland Conservation Board also plans to back DOC’s efforts. Chairperson Shona Sangster said the board would submit its support for a no-shoot site in the coastal plan.

An April 2023 estimate by DOC put the number of remaining southern New Zealand dotterels at 126. This represented a 13% population decline from 144 a year earlier.

The shorebird, which only breeds on Stewart Island/Rakiura, is one of the country’s most endangered birds and the population is classified as nationally critical.

Sangster said it was a risk, especially when dogs were involved, that something could happen to the dotterels as a result of duck-hunting activity.

“It would just be a shame to put so much work into protecting their breeding habitat in the national park in Rakiura and then have something unfortunate happen – not on purpose, but accidents can happen,” she said.

Sangster said duck shooters’ reaction to the announcement when it came about would depend on how the message was worded and the rationale behind it.

“You probably wouldn’t do it if it was a kākapō or a takahē, but there’s more of them than there are dotterels,” she said.

A report tabled at a conservation board meeting on October 26 said the construction of duck-shooting maimais and observations of disturbance by vehicles and dogs had brought to light “a lack of protection for Awarua Bay in local plans and bylaws”.

“Of additional and particular concern is that nearly 50% of the entire global population of southern New Zealand dotterel winters there, with shooting blinds constructed beside key high-tide roosting sites at the time of year these birds are in the bay.

“Given that there are only 126 in total at last count, disturbance or chance by-kill are unacceptable risks.”

DOC’s Murihiku office was working with Fish & Game and the regional council “to advocate for a no-shooting zone, better protection of the site in the coastal plan, and towards the longer-term aim of extending the existing 9ha wildlife refuge at [the] Tiwai sandpit to include the wider bay and roost site within the New River Estuary”, the report said.

Jacob Smyth, a Southland Fish & Game resource management officer, said Southland had a variety of wildlife and nature reserves. The nature reserves were under DOC’s purview, while Fish & Game controlled the wildlife reserves.

Southland did not have many wildlife reserves, and of the ones that existed, many were historical and on private land, Smyth said.

For example, there was a wildlife reserve just outside the town in Wyndham, while the northern Southland wildlife reserves were from the 1960s and 70s. None had been established in recent years, he said.

DOC Murihiku operations manager John McCarroll said: “The Awarua area is home to a large number of vulnerable species.

“DOC is working to help raise awareness of the species in the area, which is also popular for recreation activities like duck shooting, whitebaiting and fishing.

“Most Southlanders take great pride in the natural environment and species found here, and we want to work with the public to ensure they can recreate sensibly.

“We’re exploring a variety of different ways to manage this and will be working directly with other agencies such as Fish & Game and Environment Southland, along with recreational users in the area, on any new plans.”

Environment Southland partnerships manager Nick Perham said Awarua Bay was a “special area with unique natural features” and biodiversity.

“Environment Southland welcomes discussion with [the] Department of Conservation on how together we can balance maintaining Awarua Bay’s unique environment and the need to protect vulnerable wildlife, while considering recreational activities undertaken in the area,” he said.

Last month, a fundraising campaign to save the southern dotterel from extinction was launched after feral cat predators killed at least one of the 126 birds remaining.