BAY OF PLENTY

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 85, 10 April 1926, Page 7

BAY OF PLENTY

SUBMARINE THERMAL ACTION

WHITE ISLAND ONLY ONE SIGN,

The submarine disturbance in the Bay of Plenty and its effect upon the fishing in that area, as reported in a message from Tauranga, is the subject of some interesting comment by Mr. Frank Eyre, of Auckland. He writes to the "New Zealand Herald": "The recently-reported submarine disturbance, and the consequent disappearance of fish from the White Island area is by no means an isolated instance of calamity that comes occasionally to fish. From time to time the sandy beaches along that stretch of coast as far up as Mercury Bay bear evidence of the fact that angered Nature takes her toll, both by storm and fire. • Against the former the countless sea dwellers have a rea s sonable chance, but against the latter there is a single chance between flight and death. , "The most notable instance I .can recall of undersea calamity occurred during the Tarawera eruption in 1886.' Communication between the coastal townships of Mercury Bay, Tairua, Tauranga, 'and Opotiki at that time was maintained principally by means of cutters trading between Auckland and the coast. The cutter Mana ran into a vor-, tex of muddied sea, floating weed, and dead and dying fish on the occasion referred to, and though but a youngster I can call the consternation the strange si»ht caused at the time. There can be'no doubt that the direct menace to sea life came from the sulphur and attendant fumes, rather than from., any forceful upheaval, a fact borne out by the number of fish 'broaching', and 'skating' in the affected area. "But White Island is only one sign of the thermal activity that lies beneath the bed of the Bay of Plenty and' its environs. A few miles from Mercury Bay, Hot Water Beach gives further evidence of old natural forces, still unconquered. It is below highwater mark that one may delve when the tide is out,, and so tap the heated waters that overlie the thermal bed, of which White Island is the moßt substantial sign. "At Mercury Bay there is also a creek—a bathing place for whites today, and, no doubt for Natives in the past—where the heated thermal waters mingle with the colder flow which finds its sourco in the Moewai and Ohukr, hills. Thus we eau trace thermal action over a stretch of some eighty miles. A volcanic cone stands within Mercury Bay itself,! and for some distance inland *! have traced. a succession of pumice ridges, marking, no doubt, volcanic age, and .also old high-water "marks. We have evidence in this^uccession of pumice ridges that the sea is slowly receding in this locality. "To those who know the locality, therefore, it will not seem strange that chaos should reign from time to time beneath tho surface of the waters, and that the fish should occasionally be scattered and driven from their haunts. That there has been a repetition of what took place, in 1886 there can be no doubt, though the dimensions of tho disturbance have, been less. The ready return of tho fish and the. small evidence of mortality on the beaches point t ■ a sudden outburst and a ra^id settling down of the affected region. Recurrenco of such happenings is inevitable, but Nature ha 3 provided compensations in this richly-endowed uea area, where more often the greater forms of sea lifo find shelter from the stress' of storm.' 1