Story: Acclimatisation
Taranaki photographer Robert Wells (right) and another man pose with black shags shot at Lake Rotoehu around 1940. For many decades acclimatisation societies and fishermen believed that trout populations were severely affected by predators such as shags, which they considered ‘vermin’. Societies paid bounties for dead birds and conducted raids on rookeries during the breeding season.
About this item
Alexander Turnbull Library, Robert E. Wells Collection (PAColl-0001)
Reference: 1/4-091512; F
Photograph by Zeila Aroha Gillman Wells
Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Matauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.