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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-08-25 Daily Xml
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Pied Cormorants

Mr ELLIS (Narungga) (16:00): I rise today to voice the concerns of the residents, businesses and community groups of the Stansbury and Port Vincent area of Yorke Peninsula with respect to an ever-increasing number of cormorants—a large gulp of cormorants, I think is the proper collective noun—that are having an impact on the life of the people in these wonderful, beautiful communities.

I have been contacted by a great many constituents regarding the effect these shags are having on the beautiful towns of Stansbury and Port Vincent particularly. I was contacted by the local publican, Rob Rankine, who does an extraordinary job running the tremendous Dalrymple Hotel, which is a wonderful establishment if anyone has the time to pop in, who shared photos of the seemingly daily task he has to undertake in order to remove shag excreta from the windows of his hotel so that patrons can enjoy the wonderful sea views while they are there enjoying their pint and parmi.

Likewise, hotel patrons have contacted me with photos of their parked cars covered with excrement. I also have photos of the roads covered with the same substance and of the extensive damage these birds are doing to the foreshore trees. I have accounts of the stench being so great that any human activity in the area is being strongly deterred. I have also been contacted by the Port Vincent Progress Association about the impact the shags are having not only on their members but also on visitors to their town.

Port Vincent, and Stansbury for that matter, is a town that relies on tourism dollars to ensure that their local economy can continue to prosper. It was most distressing to hear some of the stories visitors are sharing with the progress association. They even shared that some residents of the town are now too afraid to walk their dogs at dusk for fear of being the victims of unwanted droppings.

I was also contacted by the owner of some boat berths in the marina who had spent a good deal of money installing a sprinkler system on his docks to discourage the shags from landing there and on boats, and generally from hanging around his business. The business struggles to sell those berths and is reconsidering a future investment in the town while the shags remain a problem. I had a chat to the local coffee shop owner at Port Vincent at footy over the weekend, who also shared some quite harrowing stories of the impact the birds are having on their town.

YP Council to their credit have tried a great many things in order to control the shag population. My understanding is that the cormorants have been declared a protected species by the government and, as such, the council has been doing its best to control them by merely scaring them away. They report having attempted this method for some 25 years, and they will be granted a permit to scare the birds from Stansbury, for example, only to see them relocate to Port Vincent, and then they will apply for a permit to scare them from Port Vincent only for them to relocate to Stansbury and so on.

All the while, these birds continue to increase in population while they inhabit Troubridge Island, where they are virtually untouchable because it is a conservation park. In my view, these band-aid solutions need to be rethought. A more permanent solution to this problem needs to be uncovered so that we can quickly put an end to it. One of the problems seems to be that these birds are considered protected but are in overabundant supply.

Perhaps the minister might see fit to remove or regionalise the protected status of these birds. They could remain protected on Troubridge Island, but the council and the landscape board could have greater leniency to control the population when they are in Stansbury and Port Vincent. These are beautiful communities and they need to be empowered to provide the best possible visitor experience as we approach the summer months and tourists start pouring in again.

I have written to the minister on the issue. I tabled a petition just yesterday with some 500 signatures, which demonstrates the widespread community support to do something on this topic, and I have talked with council about the efforts that they have gone to in order to control this problem. In my view, it is time for the state government to step up and help these communities control this problem before it gets any worse and becomes unsolvable.

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