A black petrel on the wing - one of the most beautiful seabirds in the Gulf. Photo / Philip Griffin
Yeti Yarns - Paul Charman takes a Skoda Yeti in search of interesting people and places out of town
How come Aucklanders don't celebrate their beautiful black petrel, the seabird which returns each summer to the Hauraki Gulf to raise its young?
Why no Black Petrels FC, or a catchy black petrel civic logo?
Where are the black petrel spoons, tea towels and other tourist souvenirs, and why no "Black Petrel Cafe" on the Viaduct?
Americans adore eagles, Gulf States love their falcons and every South American claims the condor.
Yet only a few Queen City residents appreciate their endemic seabird, probably because the last estimated 5700 have been driven far out into the Gulf.
You must take a Sealink ferry and drive across Great Barrier Island to find them.
But it wasn't always so.
In pre-colonial times, you couldn't miss black pretrels; North Island skies would have been, err, black with them.
This time of year, the nocturnal seabirds would come crashing through the forest canopy, landing with a mighty thump, bump, bang!
Ancient burrows indicate these hard-landers nested from Far North to the top of the South Island.
Observing the birds which still nest at Mt Hobson, we know how it went before the stoats arrived.
For much of the year the petrels feed in ocean swells off Mexico, Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands and Peru.
Then, during summer, the adept fliers return to their New Zealand to their burrows (mainly on Great Barrier; a few on Little Barrier).
While nesting, mother and father take turns fishing, even ranging as far as Fiji, or almost to Norfolk Island.
Fishing several days at a time, parents gobble-up fish and squid, and then pilot their fat bellies home to New Zealand.
Using some kind of Sat Nav, the nocturnal petrels land just 2 or 3 metres from their burrow.
Safely home, the adults regurgitate their oily payload into big, fluffy only-child chicks. And these little guys swell-up like wobbly water balloons until its time to fledge.
Few friends
Black petrel have few friends, but quality makes up for the quantity. They include hardcore twitchers, iwi, scientists and fishers; many of these last bending over backwards to avoid hooking them by mistake.
To its fanciers the black petrel is sub-zero cool. It's a case of, "to know them is to love them".
They're beautiful to watch, whether on the wing or sitting on the water.
"Watching seabirds at sea is unlike any other nature experience, quite different to seeing landbirds," says Philip Griffin, a Brisbane-based wildlife photographer.
"Often seabirds have no fear of mankind when they encounter us on the open water. The way that New Zealand has cleared several of its seabird breeding islands of introduced predators is an inspiration. Let's hope that the black petrel can be protected from habitat loss, predators, global warming, food supply reduction, fishing by-catch and that they can be enjoyed by many generations to come."
A senior ecologist with Wildlife Management International Ltd Elizabeth (Biz) Bell, says caring for the birds is the job for Aucklanders, plus Pacific and South American communities which also relate to them.
Biz has been studying the birds for 19 years. She says petrels are most at risk from being accidentally hooked by recreational and commercial fishers.
This petrel is resting on the water near fishing boats. Photo: Philip Griffin
"They dive for bait on hooks, or dive for small fish when the hooks are coming back up. But we have a really good relationship with fishing industry. Most in the industry are keen to do the right thing.
"We bring commercial fishers and their crews to Mt Hobson to see the colony, what the birds have to deal with on land. It's hard going digging a burrow and sitting on a single egg, but they're great personalities, lovely birds, just magnificent.
"We get fishermen to handle the chicks and big adults, which really does something to these guys. They go away determined to do all they can to avoid petrels. For example, by weighting hooks to sink them out of reach quickly as possible, and scaring birds away from lines."
With a barely sustainable population it's a major setback if even a single bird is taken out by fishing, or perhaps a feral cat.
Another problem is young petrels becoming disoriented by Auckland City lights, straying and crashing on Auckland motorways.
"If a (parent) bird dies during the season their chick dies too. The partner takes two or three years to find another mate and breed again. The birds are so few that we're highly motivated to protect them. But they could always use more friends."
Avoiding hooks
Fishermen are more concerned about welfare of seabirds than in the past, points out fishing guru Geoff Thomas.
"Once they would barely have given them a thought. What you can do is use a fairly heavy sinker and try to drop your bait out of your hand, over the side, rather can casting it off the back of the boat where the birds see it.
Small changes in the way we fish can make a big difference to seabird survival.
* Fish Tidy: Seabirds are hunting for food - keep decks clean and put bait scraps and fish waste in covered bins until hooks are out of water.
* Fish Fast: Seabirds mostly fish within six metres of the surface - sink bait well below six metres fast, particularly when there are lots of seabirds around, like during work-ups. Seabirds move fast, so set and reel in your gear quickly and always watch for birds.
* Burley well below the birds: Sink burley containers deep - further from birds, closer to fish.
* Deter or distract birds from your gear: Create a "safe zone" to get gear up and down away from birds. Some anglers tie streamers to an outrigger or spare rod top distract birds, others throw a bucket of water towards birds.
For more ideas, including how to deal with a hooked bird: www.southernseabirds.org
Remember, if the worst comes to the worst and you hook a seabird by mistake, the bird can still be released.
Those working with black petrels, include: Forest & Bird, Birdlife International; WWF-New Zealand; GBICT; Hauturu/Little Barrier Trust; Ngati Rehua/Ngati Wai ki Aotea; Auckland Council seabird scientists and Wildlife Management International Ltd.
Paul Charman's trip to Great Barrier Island was sponsored by Skoda New Zealand and Sealink.