When a Kaikōura conservationist made a plea to her local council earlier this year for help to protect local seabirds, she never imagined it would lead to a new bylaw just weeks later.
Ailsa McGilvary-Howard and her husband Ted Howard made a presentation at a Kaikōura District Council workshop in March calling for help to protect the banded dotterels, which nest in the area.
Councillors adopted a new animal bylaw and dog control policy, which will come into effect on October 1, at a council meeting on Wednesday, September 24.
McGilvary Howard said it was "a win for nature".
"I’m very happy. I didn’t know it was going to go anywhere, when we made the presentation."
The new bylaw introduces new measures including desexing and microchipping of cats and protections at known bird nesting areas.
She said the biggest thing is raising awareness and she cannot wait to get the new restricted area signs up at the nesting areas.
The birds come under threat from predators, including stray and feral cats, during nesting season.
While the dotterel can be found on braided rivers and coastlines in other parts of the South Island, Kaikōura is like "a whirlpool" which sucks birds in because there appears to be plenty of resources, McGilvary-Howard said.
McGilvary-Howard has been monitoring dotterel nests on the Kaikōura coastline voluntarily for more than a decade and completed a self-funded banded dotterel study in 2016.
Howard monitors the northern section, and said around 150 eggs were laid last season, with around 40 hatching, but just one chick survived.
Under the new bylaw, vehicles will be prohibited from known nesting areas between September 1 and December 1, except in an emergency, while dogs will need to be on a leash.
The council will run an education campaign with support from the SPCA to promote subsidised desexing and microchipping of cats during a 12-month amnesty period to October 1, 2026.
The draft bylaw and policy received 56 submissions, with the majority in favour of the council’s proposals.
"I think it was a remarkable response," McGilvary-Howard said.
"By design, we are a very human-centric society, so it was great for people to say ‘we can do this’.
"It’s not the silver bullet, but it’s such an important step forward."
She said it could not have been achieved with the support of local wildlife advocate Sabrina Luecht.
"I just know she has been in the background teaching me and we’ve collected lots of footage of cats predating the birds, and we know they have such enormous reproductive capacity."
She said cats have been spotted invading nests in Hutton’s shearwater colonies in the mountain ranges.
Kaikōura Deputy Mayor Julie Howden said it been a long process, with community advocates pushing for change over a number of years.
While the majority of submissions supported the new regulations, some wanted the restrictions extended to protect penguins year-round, while others thought desexing and microchipping of cats would be difficult to enforce, and some thought it would be too costly for some cat owners.
Some submitters disputed that cats and dogs were attacking the birds and suggested the measures were "shaming dog owners".
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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