The 2018 duck shooting season was the quietest on record, with very few duck shooters active on Victoria’s wetlands.

On the final weekend of the season, our rescue team targeted Lake Martin and Cundare Pool, near the town of Cressy, after 8,000 Pink-eared Ducks (a so-called game species) were counted.

The first two days of the final long weekend continued to be quiet. On the last day, only about seven shooters arrived at Cundare Pool (not enough shooters to keep birds in the air), so the shooters used an airboat to illegally skim across the shallow water to flush birds into the guns.

Rescuers captured powerful video images of the shooters’ illegal actions.  ABC radio was the first to run with the story, followed by Channel 9 and WIN TV news.

The Game Management Authority (GMA) was informed and seized the shooters’ airboat. The owner of the airboat was prosecuted in the Geelong Magistrates Court and fined $5,000.