Category: Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

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There are 235 adult kākāpō alive today – each of them has a name, a detailed family tree, a backstory, and a high-tech transmitter that logs their activity.

It’s fun and it makes it easier for people to engage with these charismatic parrots. To talk about You-Tube star Rakiura, and cliff-top nesting adrenaline-junkie mum Rimu and of course, the famously named Attenborough the kākāpō.

But that’s not the ultimate goal of the kākāpō recovery programme, says operations manager Deirdre Vercoe.

“Our vision is to restore the mauri of the kākāpō, or the life force of the kākāpō. And that vision is to have kākāpō nameless, wandering through our forests, booming from the mountains and the hilltops around our cities and towns. Not to have a transmitter on, not to have a name and a well known history.”

So this year, for the first time in the programme’s 31 year history, which began when there were just 51 birds alive, some of the new kākāpō chicks will not be named.

Normally naming happens when a chick has fledged and has passed the 150 day mark since they hatched. It’s then that they get added to the adult kākāpō tally.

Currently there are 92 new chicks alive. They may not all make it but there is hope that the population will reach over 300 birds by the end of this year.

The next question is where to put them.

Home birds or wanderers?

Dr Andrew Digby sits in front of a laptop in a side small room off the large hut on Whenua Hou / Codfish island. On the screen in front of him is a map of the island – populated with different coloured dots. Each represents an individual kākāpō, and it’s movements around it’s home range. And there are no gaps left.

When it comes to how much space a kākāpō needs the estimate ranges between about 15 and 50 hectares says Andrew. Plus different kākāpō will have different requirements depending on the context – a breeding female will need a different space than a juvenile, for example.

It’s this sort of detail that Andrew is hoping to learn about through an ongoing study in which GPS loggers have been added to some birds’ transmitters – to get precise location data from different kākāpō across the seasons.

Tracking kākāpō using their existing transmitters had given them some idea of their movements, but the GPS data is a whole new level of detail says Andrew.

And it is resulting in a few surprises.

The birds move around a lot more than they thought, and there seems to be an unexpected seasonal variation in the movements.

The same GPS loggers were added to male birds released into the fenced ecosanctuary Sanctuary Mountain Maungatautari in July 2023. Some of those birds surprised everyone with their wanderlust, with a few making it out over the fence and into the surrounding farmland and roads.

It was unexpected that they would travel so far, alarming to those caring for them, and it also pointed to one of the key questions Andrew would like answered.

“One thing we don’t know anything about, because we’ve always had kākāpō on islands, is what do they do when they get to big landscapes and how far can they move?…They could go massive distances. We just have no idea.”

As they move towards that future, that would present a monitoring challenge too, says Andrew. Currently the birds sport radio transmitters which log their activity and allow them to be tracked down. The breeding birds live on three islands with information networks and monitoring stations at every nest to keep real-time tabs on the mums’ movements.

As the population grows, and they expand into new habitat, it’s not feasible that the programme will be able to maintain this scale of monitoring. They will have to find another way to keep an eye on the birds, says Andrew, whether that could be eDNA monitoring, acoustic methods, or thermal drones.

The kākāpō challenges

The issue of where to put them is increasingly becoming an urgent challenge. Flightless, smelly and with a freezing threat-response, they are particularly vulnerable to predation by introduced mammals.

But, says Deirdre Vercoe, the programme has run out of “really high quality predator-free island sites”. Their likely next move will be to islands that have low densities of stoats or rats, while continuing investigations of fenced sites, mainland efforts like Predator Free South Westland, and always with an ever hopeful eye on Predator Free Rakiura efforts.

A dearth of good quality habitat is not the only challenge that kākāpō face. The fertility rate of the birds is only about 50%, and disease is a constant threat.

The team has learned that there are some management choices that can help with fertility, and Dr Andrew Digby hopes that ongoing investigations of the genome sequences of each kākāpō will tease out more answers too.

It’s the reason why, although the shift to kākāpō living truly wild has already begun, it will be a long transition says Deirdre Vercoe.

“If you think about that number, even if we do get to 300 this year, there’s still less kākāpō in the world than there are children at my daughter’s school. You know, it’s such a small number. So they are still vulnerable. We can’t walk away just yet. We do have quite a long path to go. But we have made some really good progress.”

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

A Navy officer accused of threatening to kill an Afghan interpreter in 2013 has denied making any threat.

A court martial continued on Tuesday at the Devonport Naval Base in Auckland.

The court heard evidence from the complainant on Monday, who alleged the officer had threatened to have him blacklisted and killed if he attempted to contact the Minister of Defence over an immigration issue.

The accused officer was working as a delegate to help the roughly 30 interpreters through the immigration process as the New Zealand Defence Force dismantled its base in Afghanistan.

A formal statement written by the accused in 2024 was read for the court on Tuesday denying the allegation.

“I did not threaten him. I had frequent conversations with him; I do not recall and did not have any conversations with him in a threatening manner,” it read.

The complainant, who was working as an interpreter at Kiwi Base in Banyam, Afghanistan in 2013, had been offered permanent residency because the NZDF was pulling out of the conflict.

He had applied for residency as a single man but had an arranged marriage shortly afterwards and was trying to bring his new wife to New Zealand with him.

During the complainant’s evidence, he said he had received verbal acknowledgement that his marriage “should be fine”.

However, the accused’s statement indicated the complainant’s marriage came as a surprise.

“Initially [he] wasn’t married when he applied and there was no intent from him to get married during the process,” the accused’s 2024 statement said.

“To my understanding [he] came back and said he was married, however he didn’t provide any proof to myself, and he did this close to the departure time.”

The accused had said the complainant’s behaviour changed after his wife was denied residency.

“[He] was emotionally upset by the decision and over time became adjusted and agitated, and also unusable [in his role as an interpreter] as his only focus was on trying to change the decision,” the statement continued.

The complainant on Monday testified that he became aware the Minister of Defence was planning to visit the base and had written a letter to appeal for his wife to be granted residency.

The accused’s statement noted the complainant was asked not to come into work during the visit.

“[He] was asked not to come into work the day before the delegates arrived, I know [he] wanted to communicate with the Minister of Defence and also the Minister of Immigration,” the accused said.

“I do remember speaking to [him] and telling him he can’t speak to MoD, after I told him ‘no’ he was upset.”

The accused said he did not speak in a threatening way, and on Monday pleaded not guilty.

Another officer who was at Kiwi Base in 2013 and worked with interpreters, Warrant Officer Tyrone Howard, gave further evidence about the stresses involved in handling the immigration concerns.

He said the process was “frustrating, confusing, time consuming, but necessary”.

“In my mind we had to provide that opportunity, because it is a lot changing for them and they did serve our country very well over 10 years,” he said.

“But it did sometimes become frustrating with repetitive questions.”

Howard said the rules from Immigration were clear that residency would only be offered to interpreters and their immediate family members at the time the policy was enacted.

“There were a lot of back-and-forth requests and lot of denials because we couldn’t change what Immigration had given us to work with,” Howard recalled.

Though he didn’t remember the complainant specifically, he recalled that one of the interpreters had gotten married after applying for residency.

“There was a request to get married, and I remember the party line was ‘no he can’t’. We didn’t want other people to run away and get married and bring other people over.”

The complainant’s wife, whose identity is also suppressed, was the last witness to be called by the prosecution.

Via an interpreter, she told the court that she had been allowed to come to New Zealand in May of 2014 on a visitor’s visa and was eventually able to stay permanently.

She said the year-long delay between her husband’s move to New Zealand and her own had put a strain on their relationship.

“We reached the point we were going to, in fact, separate because it took a long time for him to take me to New Zealand,” she said.

Some years later, she recalled asking her husband to help her family move to New Zealand, too.

“I told [him] I would like to request to bring my family members here as well … But he said he was not certain he could do this for us,” she said.

“He said he had tried very hard to include me [when he first migrated] but in the end, he was threatened. That was the first time I heard [about the threat].”

“I saw the fact he was too scared, I could see it on his face, and he told me to keep this conversation very secret.”

The accused officer was the first witness to be called by the defence.

He said the complaint, made more than a decade after the alleged incident, had wounded him.

“I put an incredible amount of energy in supporting the repatriation of these personnel, more than I have for anything else in my life. When we arrived at Whenuapai Air Base I got home and collapsed,” he said.

“To have this allegation tabled against me, it cut very deep. Especially because I helped him more so than any of the other interpreters.”

The accused said the complainant was “very persistent” and would approach him at every opportunity, despite the accused repeating that he had no influence on the decision.

“I explained to him again, ‘you’re thinking way too highly of me… There’s a pyramid of hierarchy and I am at the bottom’,” he said.

“There’s the bottom of the pyramid, and then there was me. I was a naval [officer] on a land mission.”

He denied ever making the threat.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Dunedin surfers and swimmers are being urged not to be complacent about the shark bell, which has been sounded multiple times in recent weeks.

The bell was installed at the St Clair beach in the 1960s after shark attacks in the area – three of them were fatal.

The bell usually stands silent for months on end, but it has been rung four times over the past two weeks.

Photographer Mark Stevenson has been surfing the breaks around Dunedin for nearly 50 years.

He has always been aware that he was not alone.

“They’re in the ocean, we can’t fool ourselves. They’re out there all the time even when you can’t see them,” he said.

“In the 70s and 80s when I first started surfing, we’d see sharks and white pointers and all sorts often, every week, especially over summer and after the attacks, we were more aware of them.”

There had been fewer encounters in recent years, but Stevenson said there were definite signs it was time to get out of the water.

“I could see all the birds and that flying around and you get this uneasy feeling. You sort of know somethings not right so I came in and went. As soon as I came in, the shark came in. It was a white pointer, chased most of the crew – there was about 10 guys out,” he said.

“One of the boys sort of got stuck on the outside, couldn’t get past it between the rocks and it just watched him.”

That was at Whareakeake, but they also visit St Clair beach – one of his favourite breaks.

“You get that feeling and I looked down and seen this black object moving around. The water’s been quite murky in the last week or two,” he said.

He was soon back on the shore.

“Next minute, it breached the water and the shark bell was rung … I went for a surf later in that afternoon and I could see it again just underneath me.”

Stevenson hoped the recent encounters would remind people to take the shark bell seriously if they heard it.

He was concerned some had become complacent after a lull in sightings.

St Clair is the homebreak for Jimi Higgins, the chair of Surfing New Zealand.

The number of recent sightings was unusual, he said.

“The locals understand what the shark bell is and the significance of the dangers and they respect it and listen to it,” he said.

“However, a lot of the student population or tourists don’t really pay much attention to it.

“When you’re down at St Clair, you see people taking photos of it. It becomes sort of a tourist attraction and I’d hate to think that that lowers the significance of what that is actually there for.”

It was a rare day to go surfing in Dunedin and not spot a seal or sea lion, Higgins said.

“You are going into their environment, into their domain so be respectful, whether it’s a seal, sea lion or shark. That’s their home. Give them space, exit the water and be safe,” he said.

“When you do hear the shark bell or you see people leaving the water because there’s a shark, you should follow suit and do the same.”

Shark nets used to be in place at St Kilda, St Clair and Brighton beaches each summer, but they were removed more than a decade ago over cost and environmental concerns.

Auckland Museum’s curator of marine biology Clinton Duffy said Dunedin had a reputation for sharks.

“There are several species that are relatively common around the Otago coast including Otago Peninsula. The most common large shark’s probably the sevengill, the broadnose sevengill shark.”

But attacks were rare – there was usually about one or two bites a year from a sevengill shark across the motu.

“We have a very, very low shark bite rate in New Zealand and even lower incidence of fatal shark attacks so, I mean, it’s still safer to be at the coast than on the roads,” he said.

So do not let them keep you out of the water, but if that bell rings, you know what to do

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Stunned Waitaki District ratepayers facing rates increases of up to 45 percent are calling for a government probe of council’s finances, with some worried people will lose their homes.

The council has been seeking feedback on three possible rates rises of 19 percent, 27 percent or 45 percent as it tries to plug a projected $14 million operating deficit for the next financial year.

Oamaru ratepayer Kurt Scriven said none of the three options felt feasible for residents, whose rates had already gone up about 30 percent over the past three years.

“People just can’t afford it, not with the situation we’re in with fuel costs, power costs,” he said.

“I think a lot of people, a lot of older people, retirees who have a fixed income who are probably stretched now are going to lose their houses. As a mayor I wouldn’t want that on my conscience.”

Scriven said he and others had emailed Local Government Minister Simon Watts.

“I basically just made him aware of what was happening and that perhaps he needed to put a Crown watchdog in to see what was happening at the council because this just couldn’t keep going on,” he said.

“People just can’t afford those increases. I think people are amazed. I mean, they’re just stunned.”

In April ,the council signalled it would only consult on a 19 percent increase, following a forecast rise of about 7 percent in 2025.

Mayor Mel Tavendale said the new options were an honest reflection of a stark financial reality, driven by years of operating deficits and rising costs, along with an expensive water services capital expenditure programme.

She said the council knew that the proposed rises were unwelcome.

“This is coming at a time where life is really expensive, things are really tough, and the conversations and the numbers we’re talking about are not palatable,” she said.

“I also think we need to be being honest about the financial situation we’re in.”

The 19 percent option was a “baseline” that did not fund any future depreciation, she said.

“The 27 percent we’re talking about is recognising where the prices are at now but also looking forward knowing that we’re looking at about 30 percent price increase on everything across the board around all the services that we provide, with the increase in cost of fuel and everything we’re playing with.

“The 45 is if we decide to fully fund the depreciation from last year that we unfunded.”

At a council meeting on Tuesday, Waihemo Community Board deputy chair Kerry Stevens warned councillors all three options were untenable and that they were pushing people too far.

“If you ever reach the point where a large proportion of ratepayers cannot afford to pay the rates, you will not have money and you will not have sustainability,” he said.

Waitaki Ratepayers and Residents Association chair Ray Henderson told councillors the proposed increases were too far out of step with rising council costs.

He said an increase of 15 percent would be far more suitable.

“Nothing has increased by 27 percent, nothing has increased by 19 percent. They are unjustifiable as a straight rate increase,” he said.

More than 500 residents voice anger

The council held three public meetings to explain the options in early May.

Allan Dick was among more than 500 residents who turned up in Oamaru for what he described as “probably the largest turnout that Oamaru has seen over a public issue for probably 25 years, since the hospital was closed”.

“I think that that really took the councillors a bit by surprise, as did the level of anger. There was no great heckling and there was no police escorting people out but there definitely was a mood in the hall that you could almost cut with a knife that people were not happy with the situation,” he said.

There was a sense the council was not doing enough to reign in its spending, Dick said.

“I think that basically the council needs to come out and say, ‘these are projects that we had in for this coming year but given the state of affairs, we cannot’ and ‘we will impose not a salary cut, not a wage cut’, and ‘we will now impose a sinking lid policy in terms of staff numbers'”, he said.

Tavendale said the council was looking for savings wherever it could.

“We’re looking for where we can find savings across the board. It’s something we’re very much keeping an eye on when it comes to things like staffing,” she said.

“It’s at the stage where there’s not a lot more we can cut. We do keep looking for small savings but the general picture and where the water fits into the mix, you just cannot change the whole outlook. We don’t have any other levers to pull.”

Public feedback on the options was due to close on Wednesday.

RNZ has contacted Watts for comment.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand

Source: Radio New Zealand

Power prices on the Chatham Islands are about to jump by a third because of high fuel prices.

From the start of June, the price will go from around $1 a kilowatt hour to $1.32 kWh.

That’s more than three times the average price on the mainland, which is around 40 cents kWh.

Chatham Islands Enterprise Trust chief executive Bob Penter said prices would be even higher without a wind farm that opened at the end of last year.

“There’s still a significant amount of our electricity on the island generated by diesel power through generators,” Penter said.

“We don’t have 100 percent renewable energy on the Chathams at the moment, so we are still reliant on those diesel generators when the wind isn’t blowing.”

Penter said the Chathams is about three times as reliant on diesel as the rest of the country, so they’ve had significant price increases at the petrol pump and to generate electricity.

In November last year, a new wind farm was opened in Point Durham on the Chatham Islands, with hopes it would substantially drop the already high power prices.

Penter said the wind farm has been working well.

“It is making quite a significant contribution to holding pricing back from what it would otherwise be without the wind farm,” Penter said.

“I think there would be an over 20 cent additional increase if we didn’t have wind power supporting electricity production.”

He said the wind farm is still being bedded in so may be able to generate more power in the future, and the islands are just entering its windier season.

Hotel Chatham owner Toni Croon said the price hike was going to be difficult for people to cope with.

She said in the six months since the wind farm had been operating, her power bills had dropped by around 20 percent.

That took her power bill down from the usual $20,000 a month, to $13,000 to power her 55-bedroom hotel.

She fears some families will look at leaving the island.

“I have a business so I have no choice. I have to keep going. But if you were just a household, man, you’d just about shift, just leave, because its not sustainable for normal families. I don’t how they’ll survive.”

Penter said the trust would cut power prices when diesel prices drop.

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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand