Pukeko awareness month

The Crown-mandated member-run hunting/fishing council quango lobby organisations will have a Pukeko open season soon. In the Auckland-Waikato region they had a season from May to August last year. But why would they exercise rights over a native bird? I don't think they are migratory. I thought they were like a special class of pest destruction board, the fish and game councils, charging a license fee to hunt rather than to eradicate the introduced species? Yes/No?

I am confused. Is this a Maori custom - to declare an open season on pukeko?
Are Maori consulted on "what has been harvested in New Zealand for generations" - according to the Council's website? To have the Pukeko declared a pest for half the year or so? Is it the opportune time for everyone to gorge upon them? What are we all missing out on?

It has been declared as game in the Wildlife Act. But note the reference to "Acclimitisation society" - that is what these clubs are - or are the inheritor bodies thereof. They controlled introduced species as part of acclimitisation, I believe, and they also acclimitise by way of eradicating native birds they don't like by the looks of it too. Acclimitise Aotearoa to becoming British New Zealand by the sounds of it. Abolished officially in 1990:Most of the legacy lives on through the fish and game councils. Why would a pukeko be forfeit to Her Majesty? What is she going to do with it? eat it FFS? - it's a bloody pukeko.

My husband and I would like to thank you warmly for these 1,584 native hens and other forfeit waterfowl. We have since ordered several chest freezers.

ER

A pukeko nest is forfeit to The Queen if you hunt a pukeko without paying your fee - unless you live on fee simple land and are a nuclear family - that is what the legislation is set up for. Otherwise you gotta pay a fee to the man. To the white gun club Council.

Let's get it to 20,000 dead pukeko - is that the idea.
They may be a pest in so far as they attack the other licensed waterfowl and are portrayed as a pest to some farmers - but these are pest attributes from the Council's acclimitisation perspective; I'm not so sure they are much of a pest in respect of their overall place in the indigenous eco-system however.