100% Pure NZ – Waterways May Be Poisoned By DOC To Kill Trout

Tom Hunt, writing for the Dominion Post, has revealed that the Department of Conservation may release a toxin  into the upper Karori reservoir and the streams flowing into it this summer.

The toxin, Rotenone (A ’1080 for fish’) will be used in an effort to kill unwanted brown trout.

According to the article Rotenone presents

“no danger to humans and would be contained in Zealandia’s upper lake and only released once water was tested and shown to be safe, the wildlife sanctuary said.”

But the use of this poison is not new in 100% pure New Zealand, apparently it has been used for some years, this will be its first use in flowing water

“Rotenone has been used in New Zealand to great effect for a number of years, but only in lakes and ponds. If this trial is successful, rotenone could be a major breakthrough in protecting and restoring native freshwater ecosystems, where there are threatened species of native fish.

Dr West said when used correctly it posed “little if any” risk to public health.”

“When used correctly”, there’s the rub.

To add further discomfort “little if any” suggests that even with the greatest of care there are still risks to the public. Are those risks low enough enough to make it worth using this poison, and what damage will be done to the native wildlife and ecosystems that already exist in these waters? DOC say that as many native banded kokopu and crayfish as possible will be caught and held in cages until it’s all over, which suggests that many will also be killed off. Read the report here.

Wikipedia has an entry for Rotenone, that says that it is mildly toxic to humans, is a possible Parkinson-causing agent and may last six months in water:

Rotenone is an odorless chemical that is used as a broad-spectrum insecticide, piscicide, and pesticide. It occurs naturally in the roots and stems of several plants such as the jicama vine plant…

…Rotenone is also used in powdered form to reduce parasitic mites on chickens and other fowl. In the United States and in Canada, all uses of rotenone except as a piscicide (fish killer) are being phased out.

Rotenone is classified by the World Health Organization as moderately hazardous. It is mildly toxic to humans and other mammals, but extremely toxic to insects and aquatic life including fish. This higher toxicity in fish and insects is due to the fact that the lipophilic rotenone is easily taken up through the gills or trachea, but not as easily through the skin or through the gastrointestinal tract.

The lowest lethal dose for a child is 143 mg/kg. Human deaths attributed to Rotenone are rare because its irritating action causes vomiting. Deliberate ingestion of rotenone can be fatal.

The compound breaks down when exposed to sunlight and usually has a short lifetime of six days in the environment. In water rotenone may last six months.

Rotenone is classified by the USDA National Organic Program as a nonsynthetic and was allowed to be used to grow organic produce until 2005, when it was added to the list of prohibited substances due to concerns about its safety. However, it has since been re-approved…

..rotenone was investigated as a possible Parkinson-causing agent. Both MPTP and rotenone are lipophilic and can cross the blood-brain barrier.

In 2010, a study was published detailing the progression of Parkinson’s-like symptoms in mice following chronic intragrastric ingestion of low doses of rotenone. The concentrations in the central nervous system were below detectable limts, yet still induced PD pathology.

The question is this – should a country that trades internationally on its clean, green, 100% pure image be carrying out culls of its wildlife using poisons? Surely there are more environmentally sustainable and less damaging methods that could be used.

DOC’s announcement was discussed on the forum at Flyshop.co.nz, one member had this to say about Rotenone’s use in South Africa (emphasis ours)

DOC to Exterminate Trout, the thin edge of the wedge?
In the last year or two in South Africa we have been fighting the same thing. Cape Nature want to use Rotenone in four of our rivers as a pilot project to save some of the indigenous fish species.

An “independent” EIA was done and everything is now hunky dory ito using it in rivers.
If you study the scientific research available on the net you will see that in nearly all cases using rotenone in rivers is not successful and the “problem” species return (even the studies quoted in the EIA mentioned this).  This is mainly due to the fact that it is practically impossible to treat an entire river properly unless you overdose it.

In addition to this the “experts” tell you that at the concentrations of rotenone which are used, none of the insect life will be affected.  What they have been unable to explain in a satisfactory way is how they can guarantee the dosage will remain the same throughout the river – especially when by their own admission they will need to bomb pools in the river with high doses to prevent the trout evading the poison.

The other joke is that they will tell you how safe rotenone is and that it has been used in pesticides and insecticides for years.  What they also fail to mention though is that all the companies in the USA that supply rotenone, voluntarily withdrew registration of it’s use for all purposes besides as a piscicide – wonder why if it is so safe.

I get seriously annoyed at the bs that these so called scientists expect us to believe.  Good luck and fight it all the way!  If you want some links to some of the scientific studies shout and I will dig them up.

For more about New Zealand’s green credentials read Green Credentials, or Green Wash?

Read also: posts tagged 1080

NZ Tax Payers Bail Out SCF With $1.7 Bn

The press is buzzing with the news that the NZ government has bailed out investors in South Canterbury Finance to the sum of $1.7 billion to cover their losses, about $150 million more than was needed.

The company collapsed after a bid to re-capitalise failed.

“South Canterbury Finance is majority owned by 82-year old millionaire Allan Hubbard, who has had other investment interests and his personal finances placed under statutory management while he is investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.” source Reuters

The company owed more than 35,000 depositors and debenture holders about $1.7 billion. Of that about $1.5 billion is covered by the government’s deposit guarantee scheme.

According to a NZ Herald report

“South Canterbury has $1.2 billion in retail deposits and a further $350 million in other securities that are covered by the Government’s Retail Deposit Guarantee.

However Treasury this morning said it had already paid $1.7 billion to Trustees Executors and when an up-to-date register of investors was available, the Crown and the Trustee would arrange prompt payment to everyone on that list.

Presently around 200,000 New Zealand savers have NZ$6.3 billion frozen in 59 dead or dying ‘Zombie’ finance companies and investment trusts…The New Zealand economy feels a lot like a ‘Zombie Nation’ that wants to keep extending the loans and pretending that eventually everything will eventually go back to normal.” said  Bernard Hickey, writing for The NZ Herald, August 2010.

Before the collapse of SCF, five companies have called upon the government’s Retail Deposit Guarantee scheme since it was introduced in October 2008. For one of those companies – Vision Securities Ltd – the receivers, Rod Pardington and David Levin of Deloitte, expect distributions from any cash recovered to be “significantly less than the payments made to eligible investors under the Crown retail deposit guarantee scheme. Vision, which specialised in financing retirement villages, was sent to the receivers in April, owing 958 investors some $28.4 million.

At the end of April of this year the Treasury estimated $880 million for the net cost of all defaults under the bank guarantee scheme, in mid July 2010 that was increased to $887 million. In retrospect that seems to have been a gross under- estimate, given the amount guaranteed at SCF.  The previous company to be put into receivership was finance company Rockforte Finance in early May, which had deposits of just NZ$3.2 million.

For more about economics in New Zealand see:  NZ Facts and Stats – Economics and Demographics

For more about SCF see: Banks Turn off Cash Tap for South Canterbury, Auditor Warns About ‘Going Concern’ Status (1 October 2009) in Interest.co.nz

Another Armed Offenders Squad Call Out in Glenfield – Updated

The armed offenders squad has been involved in what is thought to be the second call-0ut in Glenfield this month.

News reports about the incident vary, the NZ Herald’s account says two truckloads of officers descended on James Street and Glenfield Road after a report of gunshots. The report adds that two women were seen coming out of the house and were taken away by police and that a man seen sitting in a parked ute had been lead away by police.  More here

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Apparently police were called after a member of the public heard a gunshot at around 11 am. Three News said that “Members of the public were asked not to walk down Glenfield Road, near the Wairau Rd, in order to avoid getting in the “line of fire” and added the following information:

Two women were escorted from a property in the same street around 1pm this afternoon. Residents were told to stay indoors.  A negotiator was heard yelling through a loud hailer that AOS had the property “completely surrounded”.

AOS on two SUVs and four police cars were seen entering the cordon via James St earlier this afternoon. An ambulance is also in attendance.

Another report on Stuff said that police had been at the property since 8.45 this morning and it published three photographs of the incident.

Earlier this month, less than a kilometre away, there was another AOS call out in Glenfield, searching for the fugitive Daniel Vae,  a patched member of the King Cobras gang. For more see Daniel Vae and New Zealand’s War on Drugs.

At the time police played down suggestions that there is a King Cobra chapter established on the North Shore, although there is the taint of gang activity there already with incidents involving the Bloods and Crips at Glenfield College (see news report) and the Killer Beez.

Shortly before the NZ Herald broke the news of the Daniel Vae arrest it published the article  “Police tip bloodshed” saying that armed turf wars between Asian organised crime, street dealers and gangs could result in the spilling of blood.

The Herald reported that police officer DS McNeill had said Vae had allegedly been taxing low-level methamphetamine dealers who were selling drugs near the King Cobra’s Grey Lynn headquarters.

Gangs demand $30,00o in taxes for dealing on their patch, failure to comply would mean the gang would beat-up the dealers and steal their drugs and money. However, a uneasy relationship between the Asian gangs (who import was pseudoephedrine) and local gangs (who buy it to cook meth) was starting to unravel.

“Some of the gangs are ripping off the Asians, who are starting to arm themselves too. So they’re all carrying guns when they’re doing these deals. It’s not going to be long before there is a shooting.”

Perhaps that explains why police and AOS officers took this latest incident, and reports of a gunshot in Glenfield, so seriously.

Update
Later on in the day The NZ Herald reported that a man with a shotgun wound had sought treatment at a medical centre in neighbouring Waitakere, shortly after the report of a gunshot in Glenfield:

“Police spokesman Kevin Loughlin said tonight a man in his twenties checked himself into a Waitakere medical centre with non-life threatening shotgun injuries about midday…” read more here

Police added that no arrests had yet been made.

31 August: Gang Links

Police confirmed that they have arrested three people after finding small quantities of cannabis and methamphetamine in the house and in a car seen leaving the property. They have yet to arrest anyone in connection with the shooting, nor have they found the firearm that was used. According to a statement published in the Herald the shot man was not one of the people arrested and

(police) had not ruled out the shooting being gang-related, and were not seeking anyone else in connection with it. “There are people involved in the incident who have gang connections but I can’t say that it’s a direct result of gang activities. It’s not one gang against another gang, let’s put it that way. If anything they’re all from the same gang,” more here

For other Glenfield related crime/drug related stories read:

• Operation Slab – Clan Labs Investigation – 18 August 2010 -”Six Clan Labs that have been actively manufacturing Methamphetamine and Ecstasy have been located and dismantled in a multi police district operation…”

• 10 in Court Following Police Bust - 6 August 2010 – “Ten Chinese people appeared in court today in connection with last month’s bust of a financial exchange business that was allegedly laundering money in an Asian drug ring…”

For more about armed police and the AOS in New Zealand click here

Safety Gaps Found In Adventure Tourism Review

British tourist Emily Jordan drowned whilst riverboarding in 2008

Media outlets are reporting on the  long awaited release of New Zealand’s Adventure Tourism safety review. The review was instigated after the father of drowned river boarding tourist, Emily Jordan, wrote to John Key calling safety regulation in New Zealand “third world.”

The two main outcomes are that there are recommendations that adventure tourism Operators be registered (which stops short of a licensing system) and that  “most” be audited in order to remain on the register.

But even that is by no means a done deal because the report’s recommendations offer up a get-out-of- jail-card :-  a “quality mark” as an alternative to a full-blown and regulated registration scheme.

John Hartevelt wrote for Fairfax (emphasis ours):

A review of adventure tourism operators has found gaps in safety that risk more accidents and damage to New Zealand’s $3 billion adventure tourism industry.

The Government has announced it will set up a compulsory register and demand safety checks for operators to stay on the register…is no fundamental issue stopping operators from developing safety systems…

(the review) found there were gaps that allowed some to operate with less than acceptable safety standards. “While these gaps remain there is insufficient assurance that preventable accidents will not occur,” the review says.

“This situation could result in harm to individuals and their families and damage to New Zealand’s reputation as an international visitor destination.” Safety systems were “still developing” because the sector had grown quickly to a significant size.”

The report goes on to state that

The scheme should require “up-front and ongoing” external safety audits.

“This would go a considerable way towards providing assurance that activities are being managed safely,” the review said.

Labour Minister Kate Wilkinson said the Government had accepted the recommendation and a registration scheme would be set up. Most operators would become subject to safety audits once the scheme was in place…read the full report here

It may come as a surprise to some to hear that operators weren’t being subject to safety audits before the review took place. Perhaps if they had been a number of tragic deaths, including that of Emily Jordan, may have been avoided.

The Herald put a figure on the cost of auditing, which is risk weighted, that is going to come as a shock to many small operators. In our opinion this is likely to cause most operators to protest against the recommendations and put pressure on the government to adopt a quality mark for the industry:

The cost of an initial audit would depend on the risk. Medium risk would be $1000, and high risk would be $2200. The audits would be repeated periodically, and subsequent ones would be half the price of the initial audit.

There are no costings for repeating a failed audit and there are some recommendations that have not been reported on by the press.

The report made a number of recommendations to the Minister of Labour. Those included:

• Note that the adventure and outdoor commercial sector has grown quickly to a significant size, is innovative and dynamic, and its safety management systems reflect that quick growth and are still developing

• Note that the review found assurance and information gaps in the safety management framework that applies to the sectors.

• Addressing assurance gaps -  Agree to introduce a registration scheme for the adventure and outdoor commercial sectors with a requirement for up-front and ongoing external safety audits of operators’ safety management provisions (to a level commensurate with the risk) and an obligation on operators to keep their registration up-to-date

• Agree to partner with an industry-led entity to strengthen the safety management framework for the sectors

• Agree to the development of a practice guide for the sector

• Agree to an evaluation of the voluntary safety auditing schemes for adventure and outdoor commercial sector operations to ensure they are fit for purpose

• Agree to investigate the development of a register of government-accredited adventure tourism-related safety auditing schemes

• Note that agencies will clarify which government agency is responsible for which activities in the adventure and outdoor commercial sector

• Note that the Department of Labour will ensure that when the review of the Machinery Act and Amusement Devices Regulations occurs, that it carefully considers the adequacy of the Act and Regulations for the adventure and outdoor commercial sectors

• Agree to better inform operators about their current responsibilities

• Agree to further work being undertaken to determine whether instructors and guides should be required to hold qualifications and work only within the scope of their qualifications for some activities

• Addressing information gaps – Agree to work being undertaken to collect better and more consistent information on the sector and to improve its collation

• Further worthwhile initiatives – Note that if the proposed registration scheme is not approved, the Department of Labour will undertake further work to consider the value of educating consumers to look for a safety mark from an accredited safety auditing scheme when selecting an adventure or outdoor commercial sector provider

• Agree to further work being undertaken regarding a requirement for operators to have a satisfactory safety audit in order to receive any taxpayer-funded promotional benefits, (such as inclusion through i-Site stands, Tourism New Zealand)

• Direct the Department of Labour to undertake further work with other agencies as applicable in order to consider the appropriateness of the following initiatives:

• A. Expanding the rules-based approach taken under the Maritime Transport Act and the Civil Aviation Act for possible application to other adventure based activities
• B. Linking ACC payments to evidence of audited safety management plans
• C. Increasing the level of inspection under the HSE Act

• Agree to investigate if New Zealand should be represented on the International Organisation for Standardisation’s TC 228 Working Group for Adventure Tourism*

• Agree to the Department of Labour scoping the development of guidance on land owners’ and land managers’ safety-related responsibilities when they grant permission for adventure and outdoor commercial sector activities to operate on land that they own or manage

• General – Note that Cabinet has approved the development of aviation rules for commercial adventure aviation and new maritime rules for commercial jet boating and rafting to improve the safety regulatory framework for these activities, and that this work is well advanced

• Note that the proposed rules for adventure aviation activities and commercial jet boating and rafting being developed for the Minister of Transport will adequately address the current deficiencies in the safety regulatory framework applicable to those parts of the adventure and outdoor commercial sector

• Agree to the Department of Labour undertaking further work on the funding and institutional arrangements to deliver the key recommendations in this paper, with a particular focus on the appropriateness of industry-government shared models

• Note that the Department of Labour will assist, coordinate or initiate any further implementation issues arising from this report.

* The ISO TC 228 working group - exists to ensure the “Standardization of the terminology and specifications of the services offered by tourism service providers, including related activities, touristic destinations and the requirements of facilities and equipment used by them, to provide tourism buyers, providers and consumers with criteria for making informed decisions.”

53 countries participate in that group including Australia, Cuba, India, Germany Thailand and the UK. 17 other countries observe it. New Zealand, along with El Salavdor and Zimbabwe, is only an observer. Click here for a list of the TC 228 standards for tourism and related services.

How many of the recommendations will be acted upon remains to be seen but any deaths or serious injuries that occur in the meantime, and which can be attributed to not following these recommendations, will be on the heads of those who tarry.

Meanwhile, the family of Emily Jordan awaits the start of an inquest into her death.

In an interview with Scene, “The free voice of Queenstown”  Chris Jordan said he will push for an inquest into his daughter’s death to be held in the UK if one isn’t held in NZ. He said that he was disappointed to still be waiting to hear if one will be held and that the situation was “bizarre”.

Mr. Jordan wrote in a letter to Mr Key that he had spent 16 months investigating the way that extreme sports firms are regulated in New Zealand and was “appalled” at what he had found, he called for safety regulation of the industry, saying:

“It is vital that more young people do not die in this way. It is a tragic, unnecessary waste and they leave many grieving people behind for whom life is forever changed. This situation is damaging New Zealand’s reputation worldwide...”

“The laws in place at the moment aren’t the right vehicle to be regulating this sort of activity and they are not being regulated in any case,” he said. “People are going to New Zealand and expecting that it will be regulated like a western country but that really isn’t the case.

“There needs to be high quality and up-front checks on firms like this, but instead authorities only react when there is an incident.”

Adventure Tourism in New Zealand

• “Many injuries go unreported, so the figures of injuries included in the report are unrealistically low. I’ve studied adventure tourism injuries for the past decade and many injuries to overseas visitors are never reported to official bodies.” said Professor Tim Bentley, director of Massey University’s School of Management’s Healthy Work Group. August 2010

• No specific legislation covers the health and safety of participants in adventure tourism activities in New Zealand.

• 19 deaths in the adventure and outdoor commercial sectors were reported directly to the Dept. of Labour between 1 July 2004 to 30 June 2009. Guided canyoning claimed 7 victims (6 of them high school students)  in one ‘accident’ and guided climbing claimed four victims in two ‘accidents’. The wider maritime adventure sector reported 6 fatalities to Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) and the aviation sector reported 4 fatalities to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) during this time.

• For over 50% of the incoming notifications of outdoor adventure incidents to DOL during the past two years, a decision was made not to carry out a workplace investigation. All notified workplace fatalities are investigated.

• For the Dept of Labour, where an investigation has occurred, only a small number resulted in some statutory enforcement action. Within the five year time-frame and sector under review, there have, however, been at least 6 prosecution actions taken. MNZ and CAA similarly undertook some enforcement actions.

• Licensing or approval is not required for many operators to commence commercial activity provision. Some agencies have the authority to certificate commencement of an activity for specified activities or to restrict its commencement through consenting processes. Powers to order adventure and outdoor commercial sector activities to cease to operate are similarly constrained.

• 448 adventure tourism workplace accidents that resulted in serious harm… were reported directly to DOL during the five-year period 1 July 2004-30 June 2009. Not all workplace accidents in the sector are being reported to DOL, possibly because they are viewed as recreation rather than workplace accidents.

• There is no single database of all qualifications held by owners, senior staff and non-senior staff members of these operations. However, an extensive list of qualifications undertaken by workplaces and matched to future training needs was compiled in 2005.  Additionally, some activities have mandatory qualifications or best practice guidelines. (2010)

See also:

NZ Facts and Stats, Adventure tourism and safety

UK families form group to push for tougher extreme sports standards in New Zealand – families call for licensing system in New Zealand.

Posts tagged Emily Jordan

Havelock North Armed Robbery Impacts On Family

The Dom Post has today reported on the robbery of another small business in New Zealand, this time a dairy (NZ vernacular for a small convenience store) in the small town of Havelock North.

The report in itself is surprising given that there are restrictions on crime reports that are released to the press.

It tells of the terror an immigrant family faced when trying to run a small business in small town New Zealand. Their story must be similar to that of many other dairy owners, for whom the death of Navtej Singh who died in his store when he was shot in the chest with a rifle,  must be still prominent in their minds, and it demonstrates how acts of robbery impact on migrant families who come to New Zealand looking for better lives.

Four men came into the family’s Middle Road Dairy on Sunday afternoon and held a rifle to Mr Ramjit Ramjit as they robbed his store,  metres away from where his wife was preparing the family’s evening meal. The Dom Post said:

Mr Ramjit said the experience was terrifying, particularly as most of his family were in the rear of the dairy in Middle Rd, Havelock North, where they lived. His 10-year-old son was due to walk through the front door of the shop at any minute…

But this wasn’t an isolated incident by any means, Mr Ramjit’s only staff member was held up at gunpoint in the town last year and is still traumatised by that event. According to the Dom Post.

Mr Ramjit said he would not consider changing occupations, but his sole staff member was not so sure. John Booth sold his own dairy in Havelock North last year after being held up at gunpoint in April. He and his mother and aunt were in his Lipscombe Cres dairy when a man with a pistol burst in and took cash.

Mr Booth said his decision to sell the business was directly related to the robbery. “It was just too scary.” Though he had not been in the dairy on Sunday, the robbery had frightened him all over again.

“I was just starting to come right. Now I’m very nervous again.” Read the full report here

We checked our list and found just two other aggravated robberies in small businesses in the town that had been reported on by the media since 2009. There is the hold-up at Lipscombe Dairy on 2 April, in which the accused had been bailed and had then crashed his vehicle. The other was at the Video Ezy on 10 March this year when a man threatened staff with a spanner before stealing cash.

Coincidentally, Havleock North was one of four regions in New Zealand included in an Victoria University Study – “Not in my backyard? Crime in the Neighbourhood”

The study showed that although >80% of people thought crime was a problem in New Zealand  63.2 per cent of them believed it was a problem only in other areas. Given the rising crime figures in New Zealand, which includes the fifth highest murder rate in the OECD and the overall rise in total offences in the Hastings area, that raises some questions as to the accuracy of crime reporting by the media and how much the public’s perception’s of crime can be influenced by news reporting.

Recorded crime in the area, 2008 & 2009

Read also

No Crime in Gisborne, It’s Official - Updates - “GISBORNE police have decided to restrict the information on crime they provide to media in a move to “make the community feel safer”. Up until now, The Gisborne Herald has been given detailed reports of crimes attended by police, including burglaries, domestic violence and the arrests that make up our daily “Police briefs”. But earlier this week area commander Inspector Sam Aberahama said comprehensive information would no longer be provided. He saw no benefit in “reporting all and sundry”…read the whole article here

Under reporting of crime to the media – it took a year before the news of the second robbery of Navtej Singh’s shop got out.

Yin Ping Yang’s Murderer Was A Serial Home Invader; NZ Crime Compared To Oakland, US And South Africa - ” Last month, Joanne Wang, 39, was killed in a hit and run after her handbag was snatched; Yang Yin Ping, 80, was fatally attacked in her Manurewa home; and Navtej Singh, 30, was shot during a robbery of his liquor store. All the victims were Asian…Businessman Charles Kang, a trade consultant originally from Singapore, said many of his overseas clients have raised concerns over safety issues over doing business in New Zealand.

“One compared New Zealand to South Africa, and another said Auckland was fast becoming for us what Oakland is to America,” said Mr Kang. “Many expressed surprise at the level of crime we experience here, because New Zealand has a reputation as being a safe country.”

Police Minister infuriated at newspaper’s test of security at Super 14s match – reporters testing security at a rugby match weren’t pretending to be terrorists.

It’s official: Politicians can’t take a joke - “MPs may make fools of themselves from time to time but they want to ban others from doing it. Satire, ridicule and denigration of MPs using any television footage shot from parliamentary galleries is to be banned under rules proposed by the standing orders committee. The move on freedom of expression is not the only controversy the rules have caused. They also create anomalies between what television cameras can show and what newspapers photographers are allowed to show, giving television the advantage…”