DEAD TOHEROAS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 963, 5 May 1930, Page 16

DEAD TOHEROAS

SUFFOCATED BY SAND EXPERT VISITS BEACH Special to THE SUE KAITAIA, Sunday. Thousands of dead toheroas were seen on the Ninely-mile Beach by Mr. A. E. Heiford, chief inspector of fisheries, when he visited the beach on Friday. What impressed Mr. Hefford most was the fact that the mortality was greatest among the big toheroas, and no dead shellfish were found on the beach between Hukatere and Ahipara. “My investigations so far do not enable me to make a definite pronouncement as to the cause of the matter,” said Mr. Heiford on his return from the beach. “What we know regarding the toheroa is little compared with what we desire to know, and to accomplish that requires a close study of its life history. Unfortunately, official records have not been kept of the mortality stated by reliable authorities to have occurred 30 years ago and also 19 years ago. A record of these decimations would have been of great interest today. “My present investigations, which were necessarily of a hurried nature, lead me to believe, that the most feasible explanation of the mortality is that the almost continuous easterly winds experienced recently have caused large quantities of dry sand to be blown upon the beds north of Hukatere, and that the deaths were caused by suffocation. Quite reliable information had been given of the drift of sand about the time the discovery was made. One witness said that in some places the beds or portions of the beds were covered to a depth of 2ft.” A possible explanation of the absence of mortality south of Hukatere would be that the areas were sheltered from the easterly winds by the configuration of the country. When he was back ill Wellington he would make an extensive search of the meteorological records, more especially those with regard to the prevailing winds at the’ time the previous cases were reported to have occurred.