“I turned up there this morning at about 8.45am and cast my spinner into the water. Upon doing so I noticed a seagull flicking around and slipping in the water, which I thought was strange.”
When Neville stepped back on to the beach, he noticed a dead seagull lying on the sand.
Following tyre tracks along a 60m stretch of the beach, Neville found 22 dead seagulls including what appeared to be a couple of rare black-billed gulls.
More than 20 seagulls have been found dead on Pukehina Beach. Photo / Ray Neville
“Someone’s been having great fun running over the bloody seagulls,” he said.
Neville said the council had been putting in a lot of money and effort into building a fenced area to protect endangered birds like dotterels and oystercatchers.
“This is right next to the enclosure, [the birds are] all freaked out, huddled in the corner down there.
The seagulls are lying in tyre tracks on the Bay of Plenty beach. Photo / Ray Neville
“An older guy, he’s actually staying down here in his camper wagon. He heard this vehicle come about one o’clock last night driving along the beach.
“There would have been hundreds of birds resting there for the night. They [drivers] have just charged through them, squashing them. A senseless act.”
