学进去

Farmers and hunters are calling for an extension (延期) to the Victorian duck hunting season, saying certain species are doing great harm to crops and waterways and need to be controlled. This season runs from 8:00 am today and will end in 20 days, down from the usual 12 weeks, with a bag limit of five listed game ducks per day.

Wayne Shields grows leafy greens on the Mornington Peninsula and he said the decision to reduce the duck hunting season would take its toll on farmers. “The wood ducks are the ones causing all of the damage; the black ducks are no problem around here. The wood ducks come in at night and they just clean me out completely and they’ve done it a number of times over a number of years,” he said.

Mr. Shields and his wife, Natasha, run Peninsula Fresh Organics and he said there was nothing he could do to stop the invasion (入侵). “I nearly went broke a few years ago. Back then I was planting 10,000 lettuce (生菜) a week and they would quite happily eat 10,000 lettuce a week.” Due to the damage caused by the wood ducks, Mr. Shields said there should be a year-round open season on the wood ducks and farmers should be allowed to shoot birds.

Professor Richard Kingsford, Director of the Centre for Ecosystem Science at UNSW, said although the wood ducks ate crops, extending the duck season may not achieve what farmers wanted. He is calling on the government to invest more in research to address the threat certain species of waterbirds caused for some farmers, so other nonlethal (非致命的) ways to destroy the birds can be found.