Re: Black swan issue takes flight' (The Weekend Sun, July 8).

You can always tell when a government department is in damage control, they attack the whistle-blowers.

They wheel out rafts of unrelated data and side issues clearly designed to stifle the issue at hand and divert attention away from clear facts.

Fish and Game has obviously been offended by someone pointing out their shortcomings in managing black swans in Tauranga Harbour.

Fish and Game advise their highest count of swans was 4600, a smidgen short of my estimate based on actual observations. They also have the temerity to dispute scientifically proven facts, which they also have access to, of the bulk and composition of black swan faeces. Then trying to equate it to natural volcanic activity in Rotorua and surrounding rivers and lakes. Red herrings?

What they did not mention is the sad plight of Lake Rotoehu, surrounded by native forest and plantations but infested with black swans now a cesspool with mega dollars being spent on recovery, all under their watch. Were sparrows the culprit here? Also conveniently ignored was the blooms of blue green algae in Tauranga Harbour last summer among intense black swan activity. What more proof do they need to recognise that swans are a problem here?

Fish and Game also fail to reveal the colossal problem faced by Tasman Bay, Nelson, where their own records show as many as 15,000 can gather there during the moult and where both wild and farmed shellfish are under threat from black swan activity and Canada geese to the extent that scientific research has been undertaken exposing proof of pollution and destruction of shellfish in that region.

Perhaps the most telling is Fish and Game's preposterous attempt to distort facts and focus by citing seagulls, godwits, oyster catchers and sparrows of all things as worse contributors to the destruction of sea grass and harbour pollution. I will leave that for intelligent residents of Tauranga Harbour to evaluate.

Fish and Game accuse me of plucking claims out of thin air and masquerading these as facts. This is a mistake because there are many more proven scientific facts coming their way which they will be forced to acknowledge.

I also question Fish and Game's statement asking for more rational and informed future discussions on what they mistakenly refer to as one of New Zealand's magnificent native birds. Black swans have been introduced for ornamental purposes and as game birds to be shot. You can't have a white feather in one hand and a smoking gun in the other.

I welcome the opportunity to correctly inform on all of the facts they dispute. This is an open invitation made in good faith.

Fish and Game told this newspaper no action would be taken to control black swan numbers in Tauranga Harbour until sea grass died off using a plucked-out-of-the-sky number of 7000 black swans as the trigger point. So using their own policy and theory we are asked to accept that up to three tonnes daily of swan excrement has to be dumped on already dying sea grass meadows before controls are implemented. They also told this newspaper that this pollution is miniscule.

Hopefully the facts presented here will go some way to illustrate the exasperation of the many protectors of Tauranga Harbour witnessing gross negligence, self-protection and arrogance of the organisations charged with its welfare.

Fish and Game has a lot to answer for and so does our own council. It is time to get the boots and utes dirty and man up to the problem.

Tauranga Harbour simply cannot support the current seasonal numbers of black swan and Canada geese.

I have an empathy for all wildlife and an avid bird-lover. I believe that all living things have a place in our world including rats, stoats, possums and swans. However, where we move them to carries consequences and control responsibilities. Unlike Fish and Game I am acutely aware of my surroundings and during some 65 years of observations and personal interaction I can confidently identify imbalances and their consequences. This is the very least I expect from NZ Fish and Game, and I am far from alone.

Kevin Molloy, Tauranga.