Attempt Today To Move Oamaru’s Rotting Kelp

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29894, 7 August 1962, Page 16

Attempt Today To Move Oamaru’s Rotting Kelp

Acting on instructions from the Minister of Works (Mr Goosman) to remove the cause of the stench and kelp flies which have plagued Oamaru during the last six weeks, the Ministry of Works resident engineer (Mr M. R. Bolt) has decided to experiment with a bulldozer in an attempt to push the huge mass of rotting kelp and seaweed from the foreshore back into the sea. The attempt will be made today.

The flies and stench have: Stopped the manufacture of a proprietary medicine in a large factory backing on to the railway yards between the factory and foreshore. Closed the harbourside tearooms. Removed most of the paint on a rowing club's pavilion and boatshed. Caused a sharp decline in the sales of food from the refreshment rooms at the Oa.naru railway station. The Ministry of Works has entered the fray because the member of Parliament for the district (Mr A. E. Dick) and the Mayor of Oamaru (Mr W. R. Laney) brought the smell and millions of flies to the notice of the Government. Earlier, the Superintendent of Mercantile Marine at Oamaru (Mr J. C. Winders) had informed the Oamaru Harbour Board that it was responsible for the land on which the kelp lies, as the land was vested in the Harbour Board The Health Department then advised the Harbour Board to dispose of the rotting ma'eri'l strewn along the harbour front. Mr Bolt in a telephone interview yesterday, emphasised that the attempt to remove the rotting kelp wrh a bulldozer was only a trial

“The seaweed has been so pounded by the sea that it is all mixed-up with the shingle. It will not be easy to move. We are going to try to push it back into the sea. This will depend largely on wind and weather for success.’’ said Mr Bolt. “We hope that when, and if, it is returned from the sea it will return as seaweed and not a mixture of seaweed and shingle." Mr Bolt said Only one bulldozer would be used at the start of the experiment. Mr Bolt said the seaweed and kelp now stretched along the foreshore, mixed with shingle, for about 200 yards and was an average of five feet high. The pile was not very wide because of the steepness of the foreshore. “It would be a very costly job to remove it. as is. from the foreshore, and would need a lot of machinery and trucks It is a solid, heavy mass It is hard to estimate its total weight, but it would be some hundreds of tons It is too wet to burn with flame-throwers." said Mr Bolt. The Oairrru stationmaster (Mr R R. Green) estimated that the rotting seaweed and kelp would cover about one acre “The smell is really desperate at times It is not constant, occurring when the wind is from the east and in absolute calm “There have been complaints about the stench at times, and the complaints have been more than justified," Mr Green said "It would be an understatement to say that there are thousands of kelp flies there are millions in the calm periods. They have caused the closing of "a tearooms on the harbourside because of deterioration of food stocks “Millions of flies swarming and climbing over harbourside buildings have damaged paint On the rowine club buildings, the flies have left hardly any paint They have practically stripped it," M’ Green said Both Mr Green and Mr Bolt said that a storm had loosened the kelp and seaweed from rocks and shelves in the harbour and deposited it on the shingle foreshore On previous occasions, the seaweed had been washed back into the sea by heavy seas in later rough weather The manager of the factory producing the medicine said the bottling plant had been closed because it was feared flies would get into the product The company cnuld not go on manufacturing the medicine while the bottling plant was closed, but no workers at the factory had' been dismissed The company had stocks of the medicine, but the closure of the bottling plant came during the manufacturing season.