People are making a lot of money out of bluefin tuna, how come they're dying out then?

So the plan for the next global depression is to eat giant crickets?

O.K.! ~

Hi Andy - We have been giving weka away to NgaiTahu, Willowbank etc Hi Clintnelson - Farmers save species - Preservationists watch them die out. Trevor - What do you eat? Do you shop for food?

The points brought up in opposition are good ones, however they aren't really the same. Beattie is talking about farming, which is different to commercially gathering or harvesting. The key being you grow/breed stock, rather than just using natural resources.

Toheroa - i cannot find any instance of these being commercially farmed, only gathered and consumed (although there was a big story about a whole pile of them dying of something unkown)

Kauri - Again, logged from existing forests, not grown commercially at the time (and with the time it takes to mature not easy to do)

Huia - Anecdotally in decline before Europeans settled, not domesticated and caught to be stuffed for museums or their tail feathers which finished them off entirely.

Whales - Not really viable to farm these, so commerce will not help the poor blighters.

Aurochs - Superseded as livestock by smaller breeds (these things were massive...).

Mr Beattie perhaps didn't phrase it very well, he would have been better to say " if there was money to be made from FARMING an endangered species, it would never die out."

I completely get how commerce can be bad when plundering natural stocks, but he is talking about breeding and raising them for food.

Great idea, annihilated on the mainland by negligent people that didn't give a stuff and now they're in line for consumption.

Is there not enough variety in our food at the moment?

@ Michael Hunt

Weka are not 'farm animals,' they are an endangered indigenous bird and not just anybody can keep and raise them. You must have permits from DOC to obtain Weka, they are NOT easy to get and I highly doubt they would grant them to you if your sole intention was to devour them, particularly given their endangered status.

If their numbers have reached 'pest' levels on the Chatams or anywhere else, then they should caught and relocated to locations like Canterbury where there were once common place.

So if I raise weka on my own land with my money I'm still not allowed to eat them? I can understand protecting wild animals, but farm animals?

Understandable. Weka's are a pest in some areas of New Zealand, such as the Marlborough Sounds. They kill chickens and eat their eggs so it is impossible to keep chickens there. They also make a complete mess of your house if they get inside! I'd try weka. As for whoever mentioned whales as an example of an endangered animal that people make money off, its hardly possible to farm a whale is it. We just need common sense and control!

If the buff weka in the Chathams are at pest levels why aren't the locals trapping them and exporting this delicious animal to mainlanders? Could be a nice little industry. The weka remains extinct and protected here and the Chathams have a new product. Chatham Chook !

P for Percy - you should read the story mate before you comment. You can LEGALLY eat Buff Weka on the Chathams as they are at pest levels.

Also to quote the article above "Beattie, who worked in the Chathams for 15 years, said weka were delicious, and make chicken look bland and greasy by comparison."

I think it is something to be considered, although it should go hand in hand with attempts at re-establishing the birds too.