Story: Game birds

A hunter aims at shags (cormorants) in a roost tree at Shag Cove in Pelorus Sound in 1906. Some native bird species were hunted at the time. Black shags were unprotected for many decades, and in some places acclimatisation societies placed a bounty on their heads as they were considered predators of trout. By 2015 black shags, little shags and pied shags were still only partially protected, mainly to safeguard salmon farms, fish hatcheries and aquaculture facilities from them, and could be killed under authorisation by the minister of conservation if they caused injury or damage to property.