Maui's dolphin

Government inaction (or rather actions that are bringing this species to the brink) are nothing short of scandalous

NZ may face challenge over dolphin measures

A German conservation group says it will mount a legal challenge over what it believes are inadequate measures by the New Zealand Government to protect the Maui's dolphin species.

Radio NZ,

26 January, 2013

Under new rules announced by Conservation Minister Nick Smith in November a set-net fishing ban will be extended to cover 350 square kilometres of the Taranaki coast, at a distance of between two and seven nautical miles offshore.

But conservationists argue the measure fails to protect the Maui's dolphin, of which only 55 over the age of one are thought to exist.

NABU International said it planned to challenge the decision in the New Zealand High Court and is calling for an international boycott of seafood from New Zealand, the BBC reports.

Its head of conservation Dr Barbara Maas says New Zealand's failure to protect the world's smallest and rarest dolphin is a bitter blow to marine conservation.

She says the Government has ignored the facts and the advice of the world's scientific community so it can accommodate the commercial interests of its fishing industry.

The conservationist says it is still possible to avoid the extinction of the Maui's dolphins, because there is still adequate genetic variability in the population, but saving them is a race against time.

NABU has also raised concerns about deep sea mining and the impact on the dolphins of seismic surveying.

Conservation Minister Nick Smith has said the Government will deal specifically with that issue at some point.

See also: Endangered Maui's dolphins fighting for survival off NZ coast

Social change documentaries

filmsforaction.org

Over 500 Social Change Documentaries on one page free online

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The warming oceans

The deep Pacific is now warming at least 15 times faster than at any time in the last 10,000 years

Evidence Shows Global Heat May Be Hiding in Oceans

Climate Central,

30 November, 2013

LONDON – Far below the surface, the waters of south-east Asia are heating up. A region of the Pacific is now warming at least 15 times faster than at any time in the last 10,000 years. If this finding – so far limited to the depths where the Pacific and Indian Oceans wash into each other – is true for the blue planet as a whole, then the questions of climate change take on a new urgency.

Yair Rosenthal of Rutgers University in New Brunswick and colleagues from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York, and at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, report in the journal Science that deep ocean warming could right now be taking much of the heat that meteorologists had expected to find in the atmosphere.

In the last few years, even though greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere have gone up, the rate of increase in global average temperatures has slowed and there is evidence that much of the expected heat is being absorbed by the oceans and carried beneath the surface.

Record in shells

But records of ocean temperatures are patchy, and in any case date back only half a century. Rosenthal and his colleagues decided that they could reliably calculate a pattern of temperature changes by looking at a record of deposition through time.

One little single-celled organism called Hyalinea balthica has evolved to live only at depths of 500 to 1,000 metres. H.balthica makes a microscopic shell, and when it dies, this shell falls to the ocean bottom. It takes the ingredients for the shell from the elements dissolved in the water around it, and the chemical mix available varies with temperature: the warmer the water, the greater the ratio of magnesium to calcium – and this difference is then recorded in the surviving shell.

So the marine sediments around Indonesia preserve a thermal record of changes with time. The scientists studied ocean cores to “read” a pattern of climate change over the last 10,000 years, since the end of the Ice Age. The readings from the sediments mirror a series of already-known climate shifts – a very warm spell at the end of the Ice Age, a “medieval warm period” when vineyards flourished in Britain, and a “Little Ice Age” when rivers like the Thames of London routinely froze.

So equipped with a reliable guide to change the scientists were able to make sense of the changes in the last 60 years. And they found that ocean temperatures, at such depths, had warmed 15 times faster in the last 60 years that they did during the natural warming cycles of the last 10,000.

The research is incomplete, and its chief value may be in helping to improve the models used by climate scientists. But the implication is that the heat that should be registered in the atmosphere is now being absorbed by the deep oceans.

View of the Pacific Ocean from Space. A region of the Pacific is now warming at least 15 times faster than at any time in the past 10,000 years.

Credit: NASA via Climate News Network

No cause for complacency

This does not mean that climate scientists can stop worrying about global warming. “We may have underestimated the efficiency of the oceans as a storehouse for heat and energy,” Rosenthal said. “It may buy us some time – how much time I don’t really know – to come to terms with climate change. But it’s not going to stop climate change.”

His colleague Braddock Linsley of Lamont-Doherty said: “Our work showed that the intermediate waters in the Pacific had been cooling steadily from about 10,000 years ago. This places the recent warming of the Pacific intermediate waters in temporal context. The trend has now reversed in a big way and the deep ocean is warming.”

Tim Radford is a reporter for Climate News Network. Climate News Network is a news service led by four veteran British environmental reporters and broadcasters. It delivers news and commentary about climate change for free to media outlets worldwide.

Rebellion in dire times

Radical Resistance in Dire Times – 11/27/13

PRN

On tonight’s Political Analysis, Sandy LeonVest looks at the dimensions of our current environmental crisis, the importance of resistance and rebellion in such dire times and whether the “clean energy revolution” is working as advertised to mitigate runaway climate change.

Along with Sandy’s commentary, the show features audio clips from an array of radical thinkers, including author, speaker and professor emeritus Dr. Guy MacPherson, who gave up his esteemed position as a tenured professor at the University of Arizona to live off the grid; journalist and author extraordinaire Chris Hedges; and green energy researcher Ozzie Zehner, author of the provocative new book, “Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism.”

Trouble brewing in the Ukraine

I have little doubt in my mind that the West is stirring up trouble in Ukraine disguised as a democracy movement to screw with Russia. The Ukraine had its own reasons for rejecting an agreement with the EU that would have seriously shortchanged them.

Ukrainian leader 'outraged', slams violence in Kiev as police disperse protesters

The Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovich, has stated his outrage at the violent events which occurred in Kiev’s Independence Square, and harshly condemned the actions that led to the employment of force against the protesters.

RT,

30 November, 2013

The Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovich, has stated his outrage at the violent events which occurred in Kiev’s Independence Square, and harshly condemned the actions that led to the employment of force against the protesters.

“I demand that the General Prosecutor's Office urgently provide me – and Ukrainian society – with the results of a prompt and objective investigation in order to properly punish the perpetrators,” said the leader in his address to the Ukrainian people, published on the presidential website on Saturday.

The special task force, Berkut, armed with clubs and shields dispersed the protesters at Kiev’s landmark Independence Square early on Saturday. They had been demonstrating against the government’s decision to suspend signing a key integration deal with the EU. 

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich reads his notes before the plenary session of the European Union's Eastern Partnership summit on November 29, 2013 in Vilnius, Lithuania.(AFP Photo / Alain Jocard

Thirty-five people were reported to be detained. However, they were released later in the day. According to medics, 35 people were injured - seven of whom were hospitalized.

After the protest at the Independence Square was dispersed, between 5,000 and 10,000 protesters assembled in Kiev's St. Michael's Square on Saturday evening to continue rallying against Yanukovich’s government.

The EU condemned the excessive use of force by the police during the rally and urged Kiev to carry out an investigation and prosecute the perpetrators, said both the European Union’s top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, and the Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Fule, in a statement given to Interfax-Ukraine news agency on Saturday.

Fule also urged the Ukrainian authorities to refrain from the use of force on his Twitter account.

Štefan Füle     
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‪@StefanFuleEU

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‪#euromaidan ‪#Ukraine:following events with great concern,urge to refrain from use of force against those peacefully expressing their views

12:04 AM - 1 Dec 2013

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The US envoy to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, also condemned “the violence against peaceful demonstrators.”

Meanwhile a petition has been posted on the US White House website asking the US government to help “peacefully overthrow the current Government and President” of Ukraine and to hold “democratic elections for a new parliament and bring to justice all present perpetrators of state power”.

The petition has gathered about 40,000 signatures.

Another petition created on Tuesday asked the US government to impose sanctions on the Ukrainian president “unless Mr Yanukovich signs the Ukraine-EU Association Agreement” The petition has gathered about 116,000 signatures – which is more than the 100,000 threshold needed for the petition to be reviewed by the administration.

A general view shows the square in front of the Mikhailovsky Zlatoverkhy Cathedral (St. Michael's golden-domed cathedral) during a rally supporting EU integration in Kiev November 30, 2013. .(Reuters / Valentyn Ogirenko)

Moscow has said that it is ready for trilateral talks with Kiev and Brussels over the economic consequences of the association deal between Ukraine and the EU.

“We were not the ones who proposed or insisted on these talks, but if the European Union and Ukraine want us to discuss the economic consequences of the association to our trilateral relations, we are ready, in principle, to so,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Vasily Nebenzya said on Saturday.

Political commentator Aleksander Nekrasov told RT that there isn’t much support among the Ukrainians for the association with the European Union.

“I don’t think there’s much support [for the deal with the EU]. I think there’s a lot of confusion, a lot of people don’t understand what’s going on. The most important thing for the Ukrainians to know is that there won’t be a free visa area. They won’t be able to travel to the West; they will encounter a lot of opposition from the West. The feeling is across the EU is that immigrants steal their jobs, they use their benefits and that they are a burden to their economies. I don’t understand why Ukrainians would want to go to countries which are basically hostile to them.”

Chris Weafer, a senior partner in the Marco advisory consulting firm told RT that the people will be convinced not to join the EU, as Ukraine needs more financial support then the EU can provide.

“We’ve heard from the bureaucrats and leaders as expected, disappointment with Ukraine’s decision but to be honest there will probably be a certain sense of relief as well. Ukraine has got a population of 45 million people, a very struggling economy; it needs a great deal of financial support to grow and pull out of this slump it’s in. The European Union is not in so financial shape nor is it in political shape to start making overtures to Ukraine. It has far more pressing problems in countries like Greece and Spain. Both sides will be happy to come back to this when they are in a stronger position,” Weafer said.

RIA Novosti / Andrey Stenin

Meanwhile, several dozen people wearing masks have gathered near St Michael’s Square bearing sticks, and performing a coordinated series of actions in front of the media and passers-by. It is unclear why they decided to adopt the masks and what their purpose is. Locals speculate that they are practicing self-defense to guard against the riot police.

Compare that with the bias of this article

Ukraine's bloody crackdown leads to call for sanctions

Violent dispersal of pro-European protesters sparks opposition demand for trade embargo

the Guardian,

1 December, 2013

Ukraine's opposition leaders called for western sanctions to be imposed and urged demonstrators to further protest action after police used force to break up a demonstration on Saturday against the government's refusal to sign a trade deal with the EU.

Kiev's central Independence Square has been ringed by police to prevent a repeat of the rally, which saw up to 10,000 people waving flags, singing songs and demanding the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych.

The protest was prompted by Yanukovych's confirmation on Friday that he had decided to turn his back on a landmark pact with the EU, instead keeping Ukraine closely aligned with Russia.

About 500 police officers descended on the square – the symbolic heart of the 2004 Orange Revolution against elections rigged in favour of Yanukovych, as well as Ukraine's 1990 anti-Soviet protests – at 4am on Saturday, attacking protesters with truncheons. Yanukovich said on Saturday he was "deeply outraged" by the events which led to violent confrontation between protesters and police. He called for an immediate investigation, though did not specifically blame the police for the incidents.

"I just can't believe it happened," said student Igor Mitrov, with a bandaged head and a bloodstained Ukrainian flag in his hands. Mitrov, 22 was among protesters regrouping in the grounds of Kiev's St Mikhailovsky monastery. "The police were beating the girls with rubber batons and we, the guys, were trying to defend them. But without success."

Yaroslava Fedorash, 20, from Lviv in western Ukraine, described how police surrounded and pushed protesters into a metro station. "We were not resisting: we were just singing the Ukrainian anthem," she said. "I saw a girl whose hand was broken and the ambulance took her from the site."

The police action has generated international outrage. Britain's envoy to Ukraine, Simon Smith, tweeted that he was "hugely disturbed this morning to see pictures of deplorable intimidatory violence". The prominent Ukrainian human rights campaigner Yevhen Zakharov said the attack on peaceful demonstrators was unprecedented.

Yanukovych's opponents called the police action an attempt to "intimidate" people and demanded the resignation of the country's most senior police officer, Vitaliy Zakharchenko. They called for a general strike and urged people to attend a rally on Sunday to demand that Yanukovych step down and western countries impose sanctions.

Yulia Tymoshenko, the jailed former prime minister and opposition leader, whose incarceration on corruption charges is suspected by the west of being part of a political vendetta, called on Ukrainians to "step up against dictatorship and violence of Yanukovych" in a letter to the nation read by her daughter.

Vitali Klitschko, world heavyweight boxing champion and leader of the opposition Udar, or "Punch", party, warned that the violence against protesters should not be excused. "If we forgive such actions today, tomorrow they will repeat, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and Ukraine will turn into a police state."

Ukraine's prime minister, Mykola Azarov, said on his Facebook page that he was "outraged and concerned" about the incident but did not have enough information to make a final judgment. Ukrainian media are reporting that Sergiy Liovochkin, the president's chief of staff, has resigned in protest over the violence.

Police claimed their officers had been responding to complaints from municipal workers who said the demonstrators had been preventing them from preparing the main square for Christmas. "The actions of Berkut [the riot police unit] started after the protesters began fighting back at the police, scattering them with rubbish, glasses, bottles and burning sticks," a police statement said.

Thirty-five people arrested in the square were released following opposition complaints. Antoliy Vershygora, the head of the Kiev ambulance service, said seven people had been treated in hospital and that a further 14 needed medical assistance.

It was revealed on Friday that Yanukovych would not be signing an EU association and free trade deal at a summit in Lithuania as he could not afford to sacrifice economic ties with Russia. His decision was condemned by the European commission president José Manuel Barroso as a Russian "veto".

Fracking

Massachusetts seeks 10-yr ban on gas fracking after series of Texas quakes

An environmental committee at Massachusetts Statehouse has approved a bill, imposing a 10-year ban on fracking for natural gas. The move comes as a wave of earthquakes in Texas has raised new concerns over the controversial drilling technique

RT,

30 November, 2013

The Massachusetts fracking moratorium bill is designed to protect the state’s drinking water from possible contamination and thus "ensure that the health and prosperity of our communities is maintained," according to one of the legislation's sponsors, Northampton Democratic state Rep. Peter Kocot, cited by AP.

To become law, the temporary ban on fracking has yet to be approved by the lawmakers and signed by the Democratic Governor, Deval Patrick.

The Massachusetts legislative move was taken on Friday, the day after Texas was stuck by a 3.6 magnitude earthquake, one in a row of similar episodes during the last three weeks. The finger of blame is being pointed at fracking. The series of small earthquakes caused no casualties, but left local Texas residents fearing worse could be in store.

Fracking is a drilling technique that involves injecting chemical-laden water deep into the ground, exploding it and then pumping it back, together with the gas released as a result of the blast. The water is then separated from the gas and is disposed of by being injected back into the ground.

Anti-fracking sentiment grows among Texans

The smell of chemicals preceded the series of Texas tremors, according to Rebecca Williams, a resident in the town of Azle, which was affected by the most powerful earthquake so far in the series.

“We could not figure out where the chemicals were coming from,” Williams told RT. “Then we started having the earthquakes. The earthquakes seemed to be getting stronger. When the 3.6 one happened I tried to get up and run downstairs and my house was shaking so bad, I could not even run.”

Williams is sure the cracks in the walls of her house are a direct result of the fracking practices. Meanwhile, in the neighboring Denton County, an anti-fracking activist, Tara Linn Hunter, links her own aggravated health problem to the drilling.

“We all live at the foot of a gas well in my town,” she told RT. “The biggest effect it had on me personally is asthma. Nebulizers, inhalers are part of my daily life and that’s become increasingly worse in the five years I’ve lived in this town.”

Hunter says 40 percent of energy in Denton comes from wind and most locals would like the practice to expand, but that’s unlikely to happen soon, as some of the “city council members have ties to the oil and gas industry”, according to the activist.  

This attitude is shared by Calvin Tillman, the former mayor of Dish, Texas, now an environmental activist, who believes that the oil and gas lobby in Texas is more powerful than in any other state.

“I think the oil and gas industry has done all they can do to prevent the renewables from getting a foothold here in the state of Texas,” Tillman told RT. “You know for me to put a solar panel on my house I have to go through a significant permitting process. However, if I want to drill a gas well in my back yard it could probably get done in the afternoon.”

Texas had listed nearly 6,000 oil and gas fracking wells on FracFocus, an industry fracking disclosure site as of March 2012, according to SourceWatch.org.

Supporters of fracking insist that the practice is safe, helps to keep energy prices lower and secures the US’s energy independence

Fukushima radiation plume

Scientist: Leading edge of Fukushima plume is now showing up on West Coast —

Fish Market Owner: My customers have a lot of concerns about the nuclear contamination, they’re very smart and educated… I didn’t expect this much concern

ENENews,

30 November, 2013

KPFA, Nov. 29, 2013:

At 2:30 in

Paul Johnson, owner of Monterey Fish Market: People are very concerned about it. I think that anytime that you have an issue like this coming out of the cold war and everything; people have brought a lot of concerns about nuclear waste along with that. Particularly here in Berkeley [California] people are all very smart, educated. People really want to know exactly what is going on. […] I didn’t expect quite as much concern from the retail customers.

At 12:00 in

Ken Buesseler, marine radiochemist and Senior Scientist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution: I’ve seen some Canadian data that the front edge of that plume is starting to show up in trace quantities — we’re talking about something that is 10,000 times lower than our drinking water standards [...] but it’s showing, confirming what the models predict.

[Note: Fish bio-concentrate cesium-137 at a rate of 100 times the level found in the surrounding water. For seals and sea lions it's up to 1,000 times. Source: IAEA]

Full broadcast available here

Whales congregate on California coast

“All the fish are fleeing west and the whales are feasting on them.... And so it moves up the food chain. {But there's lots of film of Walmart brawls on the news}”

CBS News: 100s of whales in bay on California coast; It’s never been like this, we just can’t even believe it

Experts: We just aren’t sure what’s going on; “A once-in-a-lifetime chance… unheard of, it’s unbelievable, nobody’s seen this”

ENENews,

30 November, 2013

Gary Griggs, director of the Institute of Marine Sciences and Long Marine Laboratory at UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Nov. 29, 2013: Pelicans, sea lions, whales, and dolphins have been in an unusual feeding frenzy, astounding all of us who have visited the coast in the past few weeks. From Natural Bridges to Capitola and beyond, and well as offshore, the food chain is in full bloom at a time when we don’t normally experience this concentration of feeding animals. [...] The intense blooms of life in October and nearly into December are odd. [...] Exactly why we are seeing these incredible numbers of anchovies isn’t completely clear. There are some ideas that surface, perhaps the warmer water in the bay is more conducive to anchovy egg and larval survival right now, and the fish know that. But we aren’t sure. [...] Now if you were reading carefully, you would notice I changed subjects, diverted your interest, and never really answered the question of why there are all those anchovies out there. If I was absolutely certain I knew the answer, I would definitely share it with you.

Nancy Black, marine biologist with Monterey Bay Whale Watch, San Jose Mercury News, Nov. 11, 2013: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance, so people should see it [...] This is just unheard of. It’s unbelievable. Nobody has seen this anywhere in California. This is a record year for this feeding aggregation of humpbacks and sea lions. There’s just miles and miles of fish out there.”

CBS News, Nov. 27, 2013: [It's] blowing away even avid whale watchers such as Karen Sheffer. “It’s never been like this” she said. “This is phenomenal.” [...] There are also dolphins and hundreds of sea lions. They are chasing an unexplained explosion of anchovies in the bay. Killer whales showed up to hunt the sea lions. “There’s easily over 100 to 200 whales in Monterey Bay,” said Nancy Black, a marine biologist and the captain of a whale watching boat. “So this is like, you know, so exceptional we just can’t even believe it.” [...] “So I’m just trying to tell the people how lucky they are to really witness this,” Black said. She knows this sea-life show will eventually end. For now, she says, just enjoy the view.

Watch the CBS broadcast here

See also: CBC News: Something very odd is happening in Pacific; Sea creatures acting strangely, species turning up whee rarely seen -- Related to Fukushima crisis? -- L.A. Lifeguard: Used to be 2 shark sightings a year, now it's 2 a day (VIDEOS)

Seabird die--off in Australia and New Zealand

Why, in God's name, do I have to read this In a foreign publication?! Why does it not feature promionently in the NZ media?

Up to 5 million seabirds likely to have died on Australian and New Zealand beaches

Concerns raised over number of dead birds on Coast beaches

Live Free Live Natural,

30 November, 2013

Lindsay Dines has been watching dead mutton birds wash in at Teewah for more than a month.

He knows death is part of their migratory fate

Their long, figure eight of the Pacific that starts in Tasmania, touches the northern hemisphere Aleutian Islands and then California before the long journey home.

But Lindsay fears something more is at play.

The avid fisherman and environmentalist has deep concerns about the numbers dying.

“I’m told that a month ago a count was done by someone - 25,000 between Noosa North Shore and Caloundra,” he said.

“And there are media reports of dead birds extending from Bundaberg to southern coast of Victoria, plus Tasmania and the New Zealand’s west coast – in abnormally large numbers and along all beaches creating great concern in communities all along the coast..

“All birds tested by vets were found to be emaciated and starving.”

Given the range of the death and numbers being reported, Mr Dines fears as many as five million birds may have died. 

When conditions are calmer, they seek out baitfish herded to the surface by tuna and other predatory fish.

“Feeding on migration is essential and is totally dependent on there being both predatory fish and baitfish along the migratory path,” Mr Dines said.

“This year has been different to past mass deaths.

“The shearwaters are frantically trying to feed inshore in large numbers before they land on the water in the surf or not far beyond and wash in mostly alive.

“There are insufficient predatory fish present inshore to herd the baitfish for the shearwaters to feed.

“I’ve been watching all seabirds, including shear waters over the last few months constantly searching for food, but they are rarely finding any.”

University of Canberra’s Professor Nick Klomp, now deputy vice-chancellor for education, spent 20 years researching short-tail shearwaters (mutton birds).

He said Mr Dines’ theory might well be true but it needed further research.

Prof Klomp said shearwaters that had successfully completed their annual migration were now laying eggs at their breeding grounds in southern NSW, Victoria and the islands off Tasmania.

He said there was no doubt impact of environmental factors could lead to more deaths than normal.

TOO MANY DEAD: A mutton bird washed ashore

Jaw-dropping animated video on overfishing… It’s time for change! – Read Here: http://livefreelivenatural.com/jaw-dropping-animated-video-on-overfishing-its-time-for-change/#prettyPhoto

WARNING! All Bluefin Tuna Caught In California Are Radioactive – Read Here: http://livefreelivenatural.com/warning-bluefin-tuna-caught-california-radioactive/#sthash.RLWODUKK.dpuf

Originally posted on: http://www.sott.net/article/269338-Up-to-5-million-seabirds-likely-to-have-died-on-Australian-and-New-Zealand-beaches

We may have to go back to 2011 to get coverage of this in NZ. I believe it to be swept well-and-truly under the carpet. At least half of this article is full of what a delicacy muttonbirds are. Subsequent to this article it turned out that 33% didn't make it back to NZ.

Potentially radioactive muttonbirds nesting in NZ

There are fears radioactive muttonbirds could be on their way to New Zealand after the migrating birds were found to have been feeding close to Japan's ruptured Fukushima nuclear plant.

NZ Herald,

22 December, 2011

Niwa scientists, who in 2005 attached tracking devices to 19 muttonbirds, also known as sooty shearwaters, found nearly half of them were spending months at a time feeding off the coast of Japan.

US researchers have requested samples of dead muttonbirds so they can be analysed, with the expectation that some of them will have absorbed the radioactive isotope Caesium-137, an element that strongly increases the chances of getting cancer.

Te Papa's curator of terrestrial vertebrates Colin Miskelly said it was unclear what effect this would have on the birds.

"When they're in the North Pacific the main thing they're doing metabolically is replacing all their feathers because birds' feathers wear out.

"As their feathers grow they will be incorporating the chemicals of the environment where they're feeding and so it's expected that in this case Caesium-137 will be present, but whether that translates to anything that would be passed on to their eggs or their chicks is another question."

Dr Miskelly said muttonbirders had been concerned ever since the Fukushima plant started leaking radiation after Japan's magnitude 9 earthquake in March.

"I happened to have spent some time on two muttonbird islands within a few weeks of the disaster and the muttonbirders even then were discussing what this would mean for their Titi (muttonbirds). I'm sure that it's a frequent topic of conversation for them now."

The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF), which is charged with leading New Zealand's biosecurity system, said it took the potential for contamination of foods with radioactive material very seriously.

"However, we have no information at this time to suggest that muttonbirds might be significantly exposed to radioactive contamination due to this incident.

"MAF continues to monitor any new information that might cause us to change our advice to people about eating muttonbirds."

Muttonbirds are considered a delicacy to many.

Eleanor Russell, whose family has been catching muttonbirds in Foveaux Strait for generations, had not heard of the potential threat but said it would affect muttonbirding if there was any truth to it.

"It is alarming that they've been going there (Fukushima) but I think until we've got the research through I don't think anyone will take stuff like that on board."

Rakiura (Stewart Island) Maori, are the only people who have rights to gather muttonbirds on 36 islands, known as the Titi Islands, around Stewart Island. They can harvest chicks each year from April 1 to May 31.

Ms Russell said people either loved or hated muttonbird's oily meat, known for its overwhelming smell when cooked.

"Some people tell you to cook it outside on their barbeques and not to cook it in the house. We cook ours inside because we love muttonbirds, but a lot of other people won't even come into the house when the smell hits them."

Ms Russell said the best way to cook mutton birds was simply to put them in a pot and boil them with vegetables.

Others says it's best to boil them in a pot with a rock for six hours, drain the water, throw out the bird and eat the rock