26-28 Wellington Street, Kerang
9.30am on Monday, March 21
The main Coalition Against Duck Shooting rescue team assembled at Lake Bael Bael, a beautiful Ramsar wetland of International Importance near Kerang for the opening of the 2022 Victorian duck shooting season.
Coalition Against Duck Shooting spokesperson, Craig Davey, today said: "Lake Bael Bael's serenity was shattered when shooting commenced at 8am last Wednesday, as the wetland descended into a warzone. Thousands of native waterbirds took flight in panic, desperately trying to escape the shotguns.
"In less than an hour, two threatened Blue-winged Shovelers, had been illegally shot and recovered by our rescuers and two more threatened species were found later that day.
"As our rescuers searched for the dead and wounded birds which are always illegally left on the water by duck shooters, they also found many abandoned swan nests as the parent birds had fled in terror, abandoning their eggs and young.
"If the Game Management Authority had done its job properly, this wetland would have been closed to shooting because of the presence of threatened species as well as many nesting swans," concluded Davey.
