Salem County residents outraged at recent swan killing

Sunday, November 08, 2009

By Randall Clark

rclark@sjnewsco.com

MANNINGTON TWP. – Area residents have organized in protest against the recent killing of 55 mute swans here by order of the state Division of Fish and Wildlife.

A public outcry began in October when information was uncovered that the state authorized the lethal collection of the majestic birds in order to thin their population and check for the presence of avian flu.

In a startling discovery, the Division of Fish and Wildlife exterminated another 112 mute swans in Mannington Meadows last year under similar circumstances, according to data received after these most recent findings were made.

No avian flu was detected in any of the species samples.

Activists say it is part of a larger plan to eradicate the mute swan completely in order to make way for game birds that hunters will pay the state hefty fees to shoot.

“If the public knew what was happening they would be horrified,” said Monmouth County resident Betty Butler, who has been following the issue up and down the eastern seaboard. “They found nothing and they knew ahead of time there would be no connection.”

The stately white swans, highlighted by their distinctive orange and black beaks, often move in on domestic waterfowl’s breeding grounds and tear up vegetation that other creatures depend upon, some biologists say.

A male can weigh up to 25 pounds and eat six to eight pounds of submerged aquatic vegetation a day, an inconvenience for other waterfowl and invertebrates that subsist on the same plants.

But division Assistant Director Larry Herrighty said after the latest depredation that “there are ecological health issues but the main purpose of this is human safety.”

No human cases of avian flu have ever been reported in the United States, World Health Organization statistics show. It has been found in some birds, however.

Carneys Point resident Lucinda Lewis has developed a Web site, muteswanadvocacy.com, and an online petition calling for an investigation into the state’s depredation plan. About 55 people have signed it thus far.

“A very determined and calculated effort has been made to destroy a bird that is appreciated whether or not it is considered native,” Lewis said. “The scientists have used data that most of us have difficulty accessing and given a very one-sided approach. And new information to the contrary is not being considered.”

Experts are at odds as to whether or not the mute swan should be considered a native or non-native species to the country, a point which could play a key role in the protection it receives.

While commonly held information says that mute swans were first introduced in America in the 1800s as a decorative bird for zoos, parks and private estates, a 2008 academic paper in “Picoides” on the subject shows a watercolor painting of a mute swan from 1585 during Sir Walter Raleigh’s scientific exploration of America.

“Picoides” is the bulletin of the Society of Canadian Ornithologists.

Fossil remains were also unearthed in four states from the Miocene era onward, according to the paper’s authors, Dr. Robert Alison and Kathryn Stillwell Burton.

The Atlantic Flyway Council, which is a partner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, recommended in its Atlantic Flyway Mute Swan Management Plan 2003-2013 that “the New Jersey mute swan population objective is 500 swans statewide.”

With around 1,250 mute swans counted in New Jersey last year through the Atlantic Flyway Midsummer survey, another 750 would have to be slaughtered during the next four years in order to reach that goal.

The Atlantic Flyway Council states that “populations should be particularly reduced in coastal impoundments managed for migrant and wintering waterfowl.”

It goes on to say the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife’s control unit generally receives 10 or fewer complaints annually regarding mute swans.

Across the Atlantic Flyway that stretches from Ontario to Florida, the mute swan’s numbers have seen an exponential decline since 2002, dropping from 14,344 to 10,541 in 2008.

States like Maryland and Connecticut have documented extensive mute swan massacres.

“Humane Society of the United States had a witness to the killings in the Chesapeake (Bay),” according to Burton, who has tried to hold the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service accountable in federal court.

“The 4,500 swans have been reduced to under 100 and the methods of killing, some were a felony in Maryland. Sacking, beating and cutting the necks with a long handled branch cutter,” according to Burton.

Mannington Township Mayor Ernest Tark Jr. said he and other township officials knew nothing of the state’s plans locally. He said last month “they just came in and did it.”

“A lot of people come down to see the swans and they are in a lot of the county’s tourism materials,” Tark said previously.

Their image also headlines the county government Web site, salemcountynj.gov.

Lewis said that on Tuesday she counted approximately 30 swans on the east side of county Route 540 and about 10 others by the bridge on Old Kings Highway.

“Why shouldn’t the swans be allowed to eat eight pounds of submerged vegetation a day?” Lewis asked. “In an open and expansive area that has obviously supported them and brought nature lovers to the meadows for generations.”