Animal Justice Party MP Georgie Purcell has been banned from all wetlands after being caught illegally trying to rescue ducks in the first weekend of the shooting season.

Police and officers from the Game Management Authority on Saturday nabbed Ms Purcell and veteran anti duck hunting campaigner Laurie Levy trying to rescue wounded birds from a motorboat on the Johnson Swamp wetlands in Kerang.

It is illegal for any unauthorised person to be in a designated shooting area during an active duck hunt.

Ms Purcell and Mr Levy were escorted from the scene and slapped with ban notices, which means they cannot be in any wetland for the rest of the duck shooting season, which ends June 5. The pair have not ruled out contesting the ban in court. Ms Purcell said she did not regret breaking the law. “I made it clear I wouldn’t back down. That’s why I illegally entered the water to rescue maimed birds today, because if myself and other rescuers didn’t, nobody would,” she said. “I don’t regret a thing. The Allan Labor government might be gutless, but I’m sure as hell not.”