Rakaia mouth closed

Press, 13 April 1984, Page 2

Rakaia mouth closed

Ashburton reporter

The Rakaia rivermouth closed overnight on Wednesday and remained closed yesterday. According to fishermen spoken to yesterday, it was something that has not happened before within their memories. A shingle bank severed the river from the sea causing a lagoon to form. One of the fishermen at the Rakaia Huts yesterday, Mr Mervyn Youngman, said the big shingle bank had been caused by a combination of high seas and a low flow in the river. The chairman of the MidCanterbury group of the Save the Rivers Campaign, Mr lan Watson, described the situation as historical and something that “made a mockery” of the draft conservation order for the river and the North Canterbury Catchment Board’s water management plan. The board’s management plan and the conservation order suggest minimum flows of about 90 cumecs for the river after irrigation and other extractions, a figure which the Save the Rivers Group says is far too low for recreational uses. Meanwhile, Mr Youngman thinks it unlikely that the mouth will open again until the flow increases and the high seas abate. That could take some days. With the salmon season still open he expects unhappy faces at the rivermouth this weekend,