Scientist scolds 'wasteful' hunters after seabirds dumped in C.B.S.

A bird scientist is speaking out after the carcasses ofdozens of seabirds were found dumped on a Conception Bay South beach.

Memorial University's Bill Montevecchisays he receiveda phone callSaturday to come to an area near Upper Gullies where a regular beach walkermade a gruesomediscovery.

He found more than50 dead turrs, seabirdsalso know as murres,discarded like trash.

"This isn't hunting," said Montevecchi"This is just a crime against nature."

This is just a crime against nature.- Bill Montevecchi, bird biologist

Newfoundlander and Labradorians are the only people in North America,aside from Indigenous people,allowed to hunt seabirds.

Montevecchi,a professor of psychology, biology and ocean sciences at Memorial University of Newfoundland, says slaughtering the birdsand then throwing them awayis an abuse of that privilege.

"I mean whoever this was, he might as well have been shooting beer bottles. I mean this was target practice. Those birds weren't used."

Cleaning out the freezer

It's hard to know exactly what happened, but Montevecchi has a theory. He believes a hunter shot these birds last year,keptthem in a freezer andthrew them out when he killed a new batch of birds this winter.

"[This hunter] wanted to fill his freezer with the new ones. So maybe if we go back to the beach next year in 2017, maybe we'll get the ones he didn't use this year."

Montevecchiis calling on authoritiesto do moreto prevent senseless acts like this.

"Whatwe need is more enforcement to take care of these issues and that's what we don't have," he said.

"When you don'thave people out there on the water, when you don't have enough of them out there, cheating happens and that's what we are seeing.

Montevecchidoesn't believe the hunt for seabirds should be stopped. In fact he saidhe's enjoyed eatinga few turrshimself, but he's calling on hunters to not discard what they kill,liketrash.