Disgust at rotting lakeside carcasses

By CHERIE TAYLOR and KRISTIN MACFARLANE in Rotorua
Poachers are being blamed for leaving sheep carcasses to rot on the shores of an ailing Rotorua lake.

In the past few days someone has gutted two large sheep and dumped the offal and carcasses on a reserve near Hamurana, bordering Lake Rotorua.

The rotting carcasses - combined with an unsightly algal sludge - have created an ugly image for Lake Rotorua at the height of the summer tourism season.

Rotorua's Doug Bell was walking his dog on a public reserve near Hamurana when he saw and smelled the carcasses, left to rot within a metre of the lake shore.

"It's disgusting. The lake is in a bad enough condition without people dumping dead animals there. They are just pigs." He said tourists in campervans often parked at the reserve.

Mr Bell also recently found four dumped animal carcasses near the Whakatane turnoff on State Highway 30 and is pointing the finger at sheep rustlers. "They must be poachers, because if they were legally entitled to them they would take them to a butcher or cut them up in their garage at home," he said.









Environment Bay of Plenty is also angry about the rubbish and rotting carcasses.

It was particularly disappointing given the amount of information available about the fragile state of the lakes, the regional council's freshwater scientist, Matthew Bloxham, said.

"This does not help anything. The more this happens the less people respect the environment. It's a vicious cycle."

Tourists disgusted by the dumpings won't be any more impressed by the lake itself, with a dark green, pea-soup-like sludge lapping the shoreline, leaving behind a thick green residue.

A health warning placed on Lake Rotorua during the festive season was lifted on January 5, but monitoring showed signs the water quality was once again deteriorating, Mr Bloxham said.

He predicted another warning would be imposed by the end of the week.

But warning or not, people needed to check the condition of the lake before entering it, he said.

"Blooms can come up without any warning.

"If it blows into the shore, people should avoid the area at all cost."

Bay of Plenty medical officer of health Dr Phil Shoemack said several sightings in the past week of yellow and green sludge in Lake Rotorua highlighted the need for people to stay away if things looked wrong.

Testing was carried out late last week at Hannah's Bay because of pea-green sludge seen in the lake.

A health warning was not put in place because the algal blooms could change just as fast as they appeared, Dr Shoemack said.

Sludge at Hamurana could have been blown there from Hannahs Bay, he added.