Kwinana Rockingham Mandurah Branch, 15 June 2026

The topic for the June Meeting was the WA Seabird Rescue Group, and the speaker was Barbara Manson. There were just ten members present for Barbara’s talk on the Seabird Rescue.

She said she had been involved in the Rockingham area for the past 20 years. They are sometimes called out three times a day. Originally, Seabird Rescue was started in Ballina, New South Wales, mainly rescuing pelicans. The main birds rescued around the Rockingham area are pelicans, swans, seagulls, darters, cormorants, oystercatchers, ducks, penguins and more. Around 200 seabirds and pelagic seabirds like albatross, shearwaters, and petrels are rescued. Total rescued in 2025 were 2,024 birds and 86 other species.

Around 18,577 volunteer hours were taken up. Birds get entangled, especially cormorants and darters, with fishing lines and hooks and many birds get botulism. Barbara also illustrated many techniques for catching distressed birds.

Many of the things that affect wildlife are urbanisation, pollution, improper diet, discarded fishing line and botulism. We all thanked Barbara for a very interesting talk.

As a footnote to this report, the H5 Bird Flu can now be added to the list of threats to seabirds; plus, for the volunteers, there is the added complication of dealing with the possibility that reported or presented ill birds may have the flu.

Ailsa Rabone