Fish stolen from an aquaculture research facility may include kingfish involved in a sex reversal study.
Scientists are warning that fish stolen from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) aquaculture centre at Ruakaka, south of Whangarei, should not be eaten.
An 8kg hapuku dosed with chlorine, formalin and peroxide is missing from the centre's quarantine and disease investigation unit.
Scientists also fear kingfish involved in a sex reversal study were taken.
NIWA regional manager Michael Stobart said scientists studying sex reversal had put hormones including oestrogen and other veterinary medicines into the kingfish.
"It's impossible to specify what would happen, but eating too much kingfish treated for sex reversal is the most scary aspect of it," he said.
"We don't give the fish large doses, but the medicines we give them render them unfit for human consumption."
The burglar came over a 2m barbed-wire topped fence facing Ruakaka Beach on the former Marsden A power station site on Friday. Using nets on the site, the hapuku was taken from a tank where it was being held alone for breeding purposes.
There was evidence the intruder had been into other tanks, but NIWA staff will not know whether anything more was taken until the fish are counted during regular weight assessments.
The NIWA aquaculture centre has been operating at Ruakaka for six years.
People had tried to enter the facility in the past, but this was believed to be the first time fish had been stolen.
Mr Stobart said the hapuku theft could be a "sign of the times" with food costs rising.
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