Source: Radio New Zealand
RNZ / Mark Papalii
“Opportunistic” gulls are flocking near Wellington Airport’s runway, picking off easy prey that are surfacing in the water nearby to munch on sewage.
The airport is taking extra precautions to avoid planes hitting birds, but says it hasn’t been a problem in the two weeks since the Moa Point wastewater treatment plant meltdown.
Raw sewage has been spewing into the South coast and further out to the Cook Strait since the plant’s massive failure two weeks ago.
Department of Conservation principal science advisor Graeme Taylor said black-backed gulls were “opportunistic” birds making the most of the sewage flow.
“They’ll be coming around in sort of flocks, when they might otherwise go to a tip site or something like that,” he said.
“They wouldn’t be eating the raw sewage itself, but there will be other species of marine organisms that will be into that… zooplankton and small fish.”
Those species were coming up to the surface where sewage was floating, making them accessible for the gulls, Taylor said.
The birds would probably not get sick, he said.
RNZ / Mark Papalii
“They’ve got very strong digestive juices in their stomach and they can eat food that you and I would find disgusting,” he said.
“But having said that, if there is, various viruses or bugs in there that’s not going to be good for them.”
Taylor was concerned about the birds roosting on the rocks near the airport runway.
He said New Zealand’s gull numbers were “huge” so bird strike was not a conservation problem – rather, a problem for those sitting on a plane that hits a bird.
A Wellington Airport spokesperson said there had been more birds gathering around the runway since the sewage plant failure.
Staff were monitoring them and taking precautionary measures to avoid them hitting planes, including using loud noises to scare them away, they said.
Airports are required to report instances of bird strike to the Civil Aviation Authority, which said there was no sign of an increase in bird strike activity in the capital this month.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand