Document ID: chunk:federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00043:reg:5:p11
Version: federal_register_of_legislation:F2016L00043
Segment Type: reg
Provision Reference: reg 5 (pt 11/15)
Character Range: 47546–50426

in Australia has been prohibited for a number of decades. It is unclear if illegal hunting occurs during the annual duck hunting season in certain states. Historically, Latham's snipe was particularly vulnerable to hunting. The species was formerly hunted, legally, in all states in eastern Australia. It has been estimated that up to
           10 000 birds (including 6000 birds in Victoria and 1000 birds in Tasmania) were killed annually by hunters before bans on shooting were introduced in 1976 (New South Wales), 1983 (Tasmania) and 1984 (Victoria). Shooting is also banned in Queensland

  and South Australia, but the dates at which bans were introduced are unknown (Naarding 1981, 1983, 1985, 1986). Eastern curlews were also shot for food in Tasmania (Park 1983; Marchant & Higgins 1993) and have been hunted intensively on their breeding grounds in Russia and at stopover points while on migration (Marchant & Higgins 1993).

  There have been a number of investigations into hunting activity at international sites, including in the Chang Jiang Estuary, China (Tang & Wang 1991, 1992, 1995; Barter et al. 1997; Ma et al. 1998).
  Tang and Wang (1992) estimated that approximately 30 000 shorebirds in 1991 and 9 000 shorebirds in 1992 were captured with clap nets during northward migrations. They suggested that the decrease between the two years was due to decreasing hunter numbers, increasing incomes from alternative activities and/or reduction in shorebird habitat due to reclamation. However, a study during the 1996 northward migration showed that hunter numbers had not decreased since 1991 and that the number of shorebirds caught was similar (Barter et al. 1997). Studies during the 2000-2001 period indicate that hunting activity had declined at Chongming Dao, China (Ma et al. 2002).

  Wang et al. (1991, 1992) also reported hunting activity in the Yellow River Delta, estimating that 18 000 to 20 000 shorebirds were caught with clap nets during northward migration in
  1992 and probably a higher number during southward migration in 1991. However, no hunting was observed in the Delta during surveys in the 1997, 1998 and 1999 northward migrations (Barter 2002). With the exception of the Chang Jiang Estuary, no hunting activity has been detected in China during recent shorebird surveys that covered about one-third of Chinese intertidal areas between 1996 and 2001 (Barter 2002). Hunting also appears to be decreasing in South Korea, with the only reported instance being minor hunting activity in Mangyeung Gang Hagu (Barter 2002).

8.8               Threat prioritisation

Each of the threats outlined above has been assessed to determine the risk posed to migratory shorebird populations using a risk matrix. This determines the priority for actions outlined in Section 9. The risk matrix considers the likelihood of an incident occurring