For Shearwaters and Against Mutton Birding

I would like to report animal cruelty in the Furneaux group of islands off Flinders Island, Tasmania.

It is held that the annual practice of slaughtering thousands of short-tailed shearwater chicks, termed ‘mutton-birding’, constitutes animal cruelty. And surely, the cull of shearwater chicks rather than adult birds constitutes extreme cruelty in and of itself? Please see featured image above.

It is time to call a spade a spade. Mutton-birding is not a Palawa custom, but a continuation of the brutality and cruelty perpetrated by white sealers in the Furneaux group since the 1800’s. The native seal colonies in the Furneaux group were hunted to extinction by about 1830 and the abducted Palawa women termed ‘Tyerelore’ were treated as slave labour, brutalised, raped, murdered and were totally expendable.1

Recently, it has also been noted that the numbers of shearwaters in rookeries have been decreasing sharply due to climate change and the question now arises:

Are shearwaters in the Furneaux group going to be hunted to extinction like the seals?

The migratory path of short-tailed shearwaters (mutton birds) is heroic going all the way from Tasmania to Alaska and Russia in the northern hemisphere. In the austral spring, they travel down the coast of California before crossing the Pacific back to Australia.

In 1985 and 1986, Greenpeace voiced protests by live television of mutton birding, and in the following year formed TASS, Tasmanians Against Shearwater Slaughter.2 In 1987, another protest came from the ANZFAS (now Voiceless), requesting that commercial muttonbirding be phased out as the industry was of little economic significance, and alternative products were available.3 Again, in April 2014 Tasmanian Aboriginal communities and conservationists called for a halt to this disgraceful practice.4

My view is that the perpetuation of this unnecessary slaughter of short-tailed shearwater bird colonies has been continued by the white descendants of sealers and not by the Palawa people, per se.5 Mutton-birding is actually a form of supplementary income for people in the Furneaux group that bears little relation to historical Palawa culture and this point has been corroborated by Skira in a 1993 PhD thesis on the topic of mutton-birding:

“the meagre numbers found at Aboriginal sites show that birds were not an important food source.”

Also, the point that mutton-birding is a commercial rather than cultural imperative is confirmed by Skira:

“Having very little income, the annual harvesting of mutton birds was the highlight of the year to these people.”

Mutton-birding in the Furneaux group is in stark contrast to the civilised and lucrative tourist destinations of the wildlife sanctuaries established in Victoria. I would like to cite the penguin and shearwater Nature Parks of Phillip Island, recently established Budj Bim UNESCO World heritage Nature Park in western Victoria and the Grampians National Park in central Victoria, not to mention the Great Ocean Road on the southern coast of Victoria.

Perhaps Nature Parks could be established in the Furneaux group surrounding Flinders island to protect the shearwater and other wildlife?

1^ N. Clement, The Black War – Fear, Sex and Resistance‘, Uni Qld Press, 2014.