Shorebird slaughter in Barbados

[vireo]

Email I received on my state birding listserve. I had no idea this was going on.

At this time of year large flocks of exhausted birds fly in after a storm.
They are met by a barrage of fire from semi-automatic weapons. The shooters
often wait for the birds to settle before firing and it is a matter of pride
not to let one single bird escape. The lakes (known locally as "shooting
swamps") are often manned all day during the shooting season, seven days a
week and it has actually become a "contest" amongst the four known swamps to
see who gets the most birds. The social and racial status of the shooters
are mostly white and well-to-do in a nation where 90% of the people have
African roots.

This practice has been going on for generations but has become more refined
in the last fifty years, with the introduction of sophisticated weaponry.
Such shooting does not take place on the other Caribbean Islands, nor
further north. The birds being shot are fully protected all the year round
in both Canada and America, and have been for about a century now. Barbados
has never signed the Migratory Bird Treaty Act but they did sign the CITES
Act back in 1992.

They include species such as the Lesser Yellowlegs and Pectoral Sandpiper,
but of particular concern is the American Golden Plover, whose population is
declining rapidly. All species are shot regardless and there is even an
instance of the Eskimo Curlew being shot in 1963, now thought to be extinct.

A Barbadian named Maurice Hutt produced a paper in 1991 on "swamp shooting"
and it makes for horrific reading. Mr. Hutt's efforts to prevent swamp
shooting were suppressed by the powerful shooting lobby in Barbados and it
continues unabated today. In fact recent estimates indicate that the
position may have worsened and that up to 45,000 birds may be killed each
year. It would seem that the only way to have this annual slaughter stopped
would be if pressure from the American & Canadian governments and other
outside authorities were to be exerted on the Barbados government.

WHSRN is the driving force right now to bring an end to these barbaric
shoots and/or impose a Hunting Season with limits & restrictions..... our
donations are much welcomed and greatly needed.
www.whsrn.org