Subject: Gray Bellied Brant
Date: Feb 27 10:15:20 2000
From: Dan Victor - dcv at scn.org


\\\\-.___ /\___/\ ___.-////
<_/ | O O | \_>
|___V___|
This message is being forwarded to Tweeters (by Dan Victor) because the
original sender is *not* subscribed. Please copy this email address
with any responses : mailto:Rickswan at netcom.ca

---(fwd)--
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 15:56:52 -0800
From: Richard Swanston <Rickswan at netcom.ca>

Tweeters ; I wish to agree with Professor's Fred Cooks statements about
the need for vigilance with respect to Gray Bellied Brant . A distinct
group of Brant that inhabit Northern Washington southern British Columbia
in the Winter period . It is also said that another group stick it out in
Izembeck Lagoon Alaska .

Wildlife Management managers in the past have
determined resource allocations based on fly way populations much to the
detriment of small regional populations of distinction such as are Gray
Brant . Species such as Geese with a great deal of philopatry (try and
find that one in a dictionary) and Pacific Salmon suffer greatly under
these regimes . WE all lose when Managers use this LAZY approach . As
with some species geese / birds . Some Salmon have adapted to return
and spawn to small creeks and streams there young adapted to the
distinct conditions they will be presented with . Managed improperly we
will lose forever these treasures developed over thousands of years .

Gray bellied Brant have already a challenge to
there continued existence. Breeding in the High Arctic weather and other
natural hazards already control there numbers . Add to this the extremes
man has placed on them with Habitat destruction and risks associated with
oil pollution [ They Winter near the Cherry Point refinery and the sea
lanes leading to the ports of Seattle and Vancouver B.C. ] And other
environmental hazards of a growing human population . We burden this
group of birds already and there numbers have declined to crisis levels in
the passed . Wintering populations of Brant have been lost in other areas
Brant were said to Winter near Victoria and the Parksville area of
Vancouver Island we have lost these groups of birds .

Today 4 day's prior to the 10 day harvest
of Brant in B.C. [ March 1 to 10 ] of a group of 151 Brant off Boundary
Bay Regional Park 28 Gray Bellied or High Canadian Arctic Brant were seen
More could of been present but in the water and not counted . 10 to 14 re
sight plastic leg bands were read OVER 80 % of the codes were from Brant
of the Northern Washington / Southern B.C. Wintering Population sighted
previously in Boundary Bay much of this Winter and previous Winters . So
unless there is a DRAMATIC population shift in 4 days the March 1/00
Harvest will start with a hit on not the Healthy Mexican Wintering
Population but a harvest of the Gray Bellies and a just recovering
population of Northern Washington / Boundary Bay Brant .

This in spite of Canadian Managers having
for years data available from new tools such as Radio Tracking and plastic
re sight leg bands ? Naturalists in Washington [ Were a Dec. Harvest
centers on the Gray Bellied population ] and Canada will have to lobby and
monitor management practices to ensure that distinct population groupings
of animals are not lost in future . By direct and in direct harvest
methods .

Richard Swanston
Delta , B.C. Canada
mailto:rickswan at netcom.ca

Just think how much money we can save on printing costs for field guides
and bird lists . When all the habitat is gone and more species go extinct?