Eastern Fish & Game officers found a 'disappointing” level of compliance with game bird hunting rules and regulations, as the season opened on Saturday.

More than a dozen offences from the Eastern Fish & Game region, which includes Whakatane, Rotorua and Tauranga, are being followed up on.

But Fish & Game Officer Anthony van Dorp says 'we'd still emphasise that most hunters of the many hunters checked were law-abiding and enjoying the day.”

The worst offending was encountered by combined Fish & Game Ranger and police teams in the Wairoa area.

Teams found nine offenders in total, with offences ranging from the prohibited use of lead shot, excess bag limits, and failing to have game bird or firearm licences.

'A total of seven shotguns were seized from hunters along with about 1000 rounds of lead shot ammunition.”

Mr van Dorp says a number of people will be summoned to appear in court to face a variety of charges. They include two men were in possession of 81 paradise shelduck when the limit is 10 per person.

In addition to other matters, all the offenders in our region that are being followed up on were found to be hunting with lead shot, he adds.

'Its high time hunters realised this ban is not negotiable – it's been in force for a decade and there's a zero tolerance approach to these breaches.”

Mr van Dorp says that some other hunters elsewhere in the Eastern region were also given warnings.

Senior Fish & Game officer Matthew McDougall says their checks of hunters' bags indicated a 'pretty tough” opening around the Eastern region, on a par with earlier predictions.

Some hunters reached their bag limit but that was only to be expected, with such a low limit of six birds in force.

In the Thornton area in the Eastern Bay of Plenty for example, hunters reached their limit or at least 'harvested a few ducks.”

Things were fairly lean in the Rotorua lakes area, and also across in the Kaituna wetlands.