Investigation launched into dead native taonga

A ‘‘heartbreaking’’ discovery of dead eels has been made at the small South Taranaki town famed for producing Poi E.

Sandra Robinson was walking her dog on the black sand of Pātea Beach at Mana Bay on Sunday when she noticed a dead eel near the old steamer shipwreck.

Robinson had never found a dead eel before on the regular morning walk she had been doing for two years, she said.

‘‘It was surprising to see an eel and then another one, then another. I stopped counting at 20,’’ she said.

‘‘The eels started near the shipwreck and were spread all along the beach.’’

Robinson said it was heartbreaking to see so many dead eels.

‘‘We used to go fishing for eels like that when I was a kid – that’s why it’s hard to see all of these eels that could have been food for people, and here they are all dead.’’

She said she called a DOC ranger to assess the situation before the tide came in.

DOC Taranaki operations manager Gareth Hopkins said there were 20 dead eels identified at the site. Information collected from the scene was sent to the Ministry for Primary Industries, and the local iwi, Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui, was alerted, he said.

‘‘The cause of the death of the animals is not something we’re aware of at this point, but we are certainly interested in what’s happened here,’’ Hopkins said.

‘‘At this time of year, breeding-age adult tuna will migrate from their freshwater environments to breeding/ spawning grounds thought to be near Tonga.’’

Hopkins said DOC was not investigating further, but was still ‘‘concerned a native taonga species has been impacted like this’’.

Taranaki Regional Council director of resource management Fred Mclay said the council was also notified about the event.

‘‘Taranaki Regional Council is investigating the deaths of eels found on Pātea Beach after being alerted to the issue on 23 April,’’ Mclay said in a statement.

‘‘We’re not aware of any contamination in rivers in South Taranaki but we’ve taken water samples and are awaiting the results.’’