Australia: Dugong, turtle poaching claims to be probed

The Age 9 Mar 12;

A government investigation has been launched into claims turtles and dugongs are being poached and cruelly killed in far north Queensland.

Environment Minister Vicky Darling has ordered the Department of Environment and Resource Management to investigate the claims made by ABC Television.

"I was disturbed when I saw the footage, as I expect were many other viewers," Ms Darling said.
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"We don't know if this was traditional hunting by people with native hunting rights - that's why we need to investigate.

"If these actions weren't in accordance with the Native Title Act, then these individuals can expect the full force of the law."

Ms Darling said traditional owners have the right under Commonwealth legislation to hunt turtles and dugongs.

She was disappointed that neither the ABC nor interviewees had provided details to authorities to investigate.

"Allegations of illegal trade have been made previously - in most instances without any real evidence to substantiate them," Ms Darling said.

"Dugong or turtle meat can be lawfully moved between places in certain circumstances - for example the parties may be operating under a native title right and are able to share hunts with others."

AAP

Australia probes claims turtles, dugongs butchered alive
(AFP) Google News 9 Mar 12;

SYDNEY — Australia Friday vowed to investigate claims that turtles and the threatened dugong are being killed to feed an illegal meat trade after images of an animal being butchered alive sparked new concerns.

The Queensland state government ordered the probe after indigenous hunters were seen flipping a live sea turtle onto its back and then hitting it on the head with a brick and hacking off its flippers.

Footage on national broadcaster ABC also showed dugongs, or sea cows, being cut up for their meat.

State environment minister Vicky Darling said the inquiry would investigate whether those shown had broken the law, which in Queensland allows native title holders to hunt the animals for personal needs only.

"I was disturbed when I saw the footage, as I expect were many other viewers," Darling said.

"We don't know if this was traditional hunting by people with native hunting rights -- that's why we need to investigate.

"If these actions weren't in accordance with the Native Title Act, then these individuals can expect the full force of the law."

The footage was recorded using a hidden camera by activists who claim that despite the protected status of sea turtles and dugongs, meat from the animals was being sold illegally.

"The export or commercial sale is very concerning and that's what we'll investigate," added Darling.

Environmental campaigner Rupert Imhoff, who spent two weeks filming in the Torres Strait in northern Queensland, said one turtle was tethered to a rope for up to three days before it was killed.

He said indigenous people routinely chased their prey in motor-powered boats before spearing them, tying the animal's tail to the boat and then dragging it while holding its head under water until it drowned.

Queensland is home to the Great Barrier Reef which is brimming with marine life, including the dugong, a plant-eating mammal which can grow up to three metres (10 feet) in length and weigh 400 kilograms (880 pounds).

The long-lived but slow-breeding dugong, along with the sea turtle, is listed as being vulnerable to extinction.

Animal rights group RSPCA said a long-term plan was needed to combat the problem of how animals were killed by indigenous hunters.

"Obviously there's alternatives now so that the animal basically dies instantly and doesn't die a prolonged death," RSPCA spokesman Michael Beatty told the ABC.

Dugongs cruelly slaughtered in illegal meat trade
Sarah Dingle and Lesley Robinson ABC News 8 Mar 12;

Protected dugongs and sea turtles are being cruelly slaughtered in Queensland's Torres Strait to supply an illegal meat trade, an investigation by ABC's 7.30 has found.

The program has aired confronting footage that shows the brutal methods used to hunt the animals, with turtles being butchered alive and dugongs drowned as they are dragged behind boats.

The investigation throws into sharp relief the conflict between Indigenous Australians and animal rights activists over traditional hunting methods and exposes a black market in animal meat.

Activist Rupert Imhoff spent a fortnight in the Torres Strait, filming the hunting of the turtles and dugongs, both listed as vulnerable to extinction.

He used a secret camera to film scenes of animal cruelty, including the slow death of a sea turtle.

"It didn't actually die until they took off the bottom shell, actually peeled off the shell," he said.

"And then it just let out one last gasp of air and passed away."

Both dugongs and turtles are protected by federal law, but the Native Title Act gives an exemption to traditional owners, who can hunt to satisfy their personal, domestic or non-commercial communal needs.

The traditional hunting methods are seen by animal activists as deeply cruel but Queensland exempts native title hunting from its animal cruelty laws.
'Too sensitive'

Lawyer and advocate Rebecca Smith says conservation groups avoid criticising Indigenous hunting.

"It's just too hard, too prickly, too sensitive," she said.

"It's often deemed people who are opposed to traditional hunting are often called racist, but there is nothing racist about saying this is cruel."

National Indigenous radio broadcaster Seith Fourmile is a passionate advocate of the Indigenous right to hunt. He has nothing to do with the scenes of animal cruelty exposed by 7.30.

"We're working with the RSPCA to actually look at that cruelty to animals," he said.

"But it has got to be a cooperative approach."

The slaughter in Australia's north goes well beyond the bounds of traditional hunting.

Former abattoir worker Colin Riddell has spent years collecting evidence of dugong and turtle killing. His investigations reveal the killing goes much further south in Queensland's coastal waters.

James Epong is a Mandubarra man who lives on his traditional lands an hour south of Cairns.

The Mandubarra have declared a moratorium on the taking of turtle and dugong, but around them an illegal meat trade flourishes.

"Nine times out of 10, the illegal trade is to sell the meat for the benefit, for grog money or drugs," he said.

"One person that we know of in Yarrabah made $80,000 in one year."

Mr Fourmile says there are also non-Indigenous people involved in the illegal trade.

"They are involved with the trading, with selling it, passing it down - some of the turtle meat has gone as far south as Sydney and Melbourne," he said.

In the Torres Strait, Horn Island appears to be a transport hub for the illegal trade. On four separate occasions, 7.30 has confirmed multiple eskies arriving on the afternoon flight from Horn Island to Cairns.
'There's no jobs'

All the Indigenous people interviewed by 7.30 recognised the illegal trade and are committed to ending it.

"There's no jobs on Aboriginal community, let's not lie about it," Mr Fourmile said.

"There's no doubt this is happening. I'm not going to lie about the fact that there is some people out there doing it."

Cape York saltwater people like Frankie Deemal are working to end the esky trade.

"We don't have no legislative framework in place in which we can police the kind of rogue killing, the kind of outsiders coming into our place," he said.

"We don't have the kind of legislative assistance to do that."

And the Mandubarra people are helping to protect the turtle that has helped sustain them.

"I went out to get one where I normally go and there was just nothing there," said James Epong.

"I came home empty-handed and I thought, 'I can't have this'. I want my kids to experience what I'd experienced. So from that day we just said no more hunting."

For the Mandubarra people, the turtle hunting ended in 1993.

Queensland's Department of Environment and Resource Management was contacted by 7.30.

In a statement, the department said it "takes the claims very seriously and will investigate all reports of illegal hunting and poaching".