The Press News Page by Diane Keenan and Seth Robson : "The disturbing developments on the New Zealand east coast in the past week include: [1] Reports of mysterious deaths of seals, crayfish, octopuses, and shellfish at Kaikoura. [2] Toxic algae confirmed as causing health problems such as sore throats and nose and eye irritations in beach goers in the Wairarapa. [3] Dead and dying fish washed up along the Wairarapa coast. [4] Public health officials have closed the coasts of Great Barrier Island to shellfish-gathering after detecting a poison that can cause paralysis.
Bob McDavitt, of the MetService, said that the weather pattern of El Nino was a factor in the emergence of toxic algae in coastal areas. "We're going for the mother of all El Ninos this summer, so it wouldn't surprise us if it also produced algae blooms." Canterbury Health yesterday tested for algal bloom off the Kaikoura coast after reports of dead seals, crayfish, octopuses, and shellfish. The National Institute for Water and Atmospheric Research was taking samples from the dead octopuses washed up along the coast. Divers have reported dead kina (sea eggs) and crayfish off the Kaikoura Peninsula. Department of Conservation staff are investigating the Kaikoura reports. DOC Kaikoura field centre supervisor Mike Morrissey said two dead seals had been found near Kaikoura on Wednesday and tissue samples had been sent to Massey University for testing.
Further south, a seal separated from its mother was found at Waikuku, along with a dead adult seal. Mr Morrissey said there were about 3000 seals along the Kaikoura coast and some occasionally died of natural causes. However, the testing of the pair of dead seals was to ensure there was no connection with the dead New Zealand (Hooker) sea lions that were discovered last week at the Auckland Islands.
Mr Morrissey said he went diving off Kaikoura at the weekend and did not find any dead crayfish. "But I cannot think of any reason why kina would be lying upside down on the bottom unless they were suffering from an infection," he said.
Stress from hot weather killed an endangered adult female albatross and her chick at Taiaroa Head near Dunedin yesterday. DOC staff used fire hoses to spray nesting birds every two hours to keep them cool from high temperatures."--E Ravji <boss@clear.net.nz> on ProMED-mail <promed@usa.healthnet.org>,