SUFFOCATED BY SAND

Taranaki Daily News, 6 May 1930, Page 9

SUFFOCATED BY SAND

THOUSANDS OF TOHEROAS. FISHERIES EXPERT’S OPINION. The recent prolonged easterly winds on the Ninety Mile Beach, North Auckland, were suggested by Mr. A. E. Hefford, chief inspector of fisheries, as the possible cause of the serious mortality among toheroas on parts of the beds near Hukatere. Mr, Hefford arrived at Kaitaia on Thursday in response to a request by the Kaitaia Chamber of Commerce to the Minister of Marine.

On Friday Mr. Hefford visited the beach, accompanied toy the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Allen Bell. It was found that the previous reports had not been exaggerated as far

iiiiiuiHHiiiHiiiiiiiiMiviinniMiiiif i! if Hinn iiiDtiDipiiiiiiiiin as the northern end of the beach was concerned, and although the high tide had swept a large number out to sea, there were still hundreds of thousands of dead shellfish to be seen along the two miles between Hukatere and the Maunganui Bluff, where the finest to-he-roa beds are located. The most curious feature of the occurrence which first impressed Mr. Hefford and other observers was that the mortality seemed to have occurred chiefly among the large molluscs, and that not a single dead shellfish was found on the portion of the beach between Hukatere and Ohipara. In the affected area a number of small toheroas were found on the surface in a dying condition.

“My investigations so far do not enable me to make a definite pronouncement as to the cause of the matter,” said Mr. Hefford 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 Hukatero, 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. Uno 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 in 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.