Page 10 Advertisements Column 2

Southland Times, Issue 20015, 1 November 1926, Page 10

Major Mercer, owner of White Island, Bay of Plenty, states that for about a month this spring the sea between Tauranga and White Island had a churned-up appearance, and a vast amount of floating kelp had been thrown up from the bottom (states the Auckland Star).» This submarine disturbance caused a great scarcity of fish for fully three weeks, and during this time it was noticed that the gannets instead of fishing, as is their wont, a few' hundred yards from the island, and returning every two or three hours with food for their young, disappeared in the early morning and returned late in the afternoon, often with no food. Every female gannet arriving at the rookery was surrounded by a horde of starving youngsters, many of which fought with each other until one or other was seriously injured. There is no doubt that a great loss in young birds took place during that month. Most -of them had reached the stage when they were nearly fit to fl v