Aboriginal elder says mass kills with guns wiping out wildlife

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Aboriginal elder says mass kills with guns wiping out wildlife

Saturday, 27 June 2009 09:02

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Picture: Brian Cassey For centuries his people have lived off the rich bounty of the Coral Sea – hunting fish, turtles, crabs, rays and dugong – by the coloured sands of Cape Bedford. Mr Deemal still hunts the traditional way himself. Every morning he wades kilometres through knee-deep water over the white sand bars in front of his Elim Beach home scanning for whiting, mud crabs and barramundi.

The Deedar tribesman, custodian of the sea country north of Cooktown, is among a growing band of indigenous leaders who believe traditional hunting is excessive and unsustainable.

The elder said he was sick of seeing dead turtles and dugong piled high on the beach, barely touched for the precious meat, shot by "outside blackfellas" with rifles from power boats.

"It's a sham. It's time for a ban. Or there will be nothing left for future generations," Mr Deemal said.

Mass killings of as many as 15 dugong at a time, all of them riddled with bullets from speedboats, have been reported in recent years north of Cooktown.

Some elders are calling for a system where they decide who can take turtle and dugong and punishment for those who abuse the right with traditional spearings, fines and jail time.

Peter Guivarra, of Mapoon, north of Weipa, is among those who believe traditional hunting is out of control.

The western Cape leader says magpie geese flocks are now a fraction of what they were because of indiscriminate killing.

The latest concern comes amid rumours of a blackmarket trade in dugong and turtle flesh, a highly prized delicacy, in Cairns and Kuranda.

(From news.com.au, Cape Bedford, Queensland, by Peter Michael)