Warning to public after deadly fish wash up

PHIL REID/The Dominion Post

STEER CLEAR: The poisonous fish were collected and sent for testing at the Cawthron Institute in Nelson.

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Deadly fish have been found washed up on the Petone foreshore, prompting a warning to the public to steer clear of them.

Five porcupine fish were spotted by Wellington woman Valerie Colville as she walked her dog yesterday morning. "I've been taking my dog out there for seven years, and I've never seen anything like it."

Ms Colville also found a dead penguin, but it is not clear if there was a connection to the fish. "In the end I just got my dog and went home."

The finds were reported to Hutt City Council, which informed Greater Wellington regional council and public health authorities.

More dead porcupine fish were later found on the beach by The Dominion Post.

A council spokeswoman said the fish were collected and sent to the Cawthron Institute in Nelson for tests. It was not yet clear what caused them to wash up, she said.

Anyone spotting more porcupine fish washed up should keep away from them, she said.

Children and dogs should not be taken to the beach until the all-clear was given.

Te Papa fish collection manager Andrew Stewart said the species was closely related to puffer fish. They were common around the New Zealand coast, he said. "Like the puffers they are poisonous and should never be eaten or fed to pets.

"Mass beach-casts like this can sometimes happen after a storm, or when a trawler has caught a netful and they've been dumped."

Early this month the death of a dog on an Auckland beach was attributed to tetrodotoxin, a poison found in tropical puffer fish and sea slugs.

In May, the deaths of hundreds of Ray's bream and snapper on a 60-kilometre stretch of Kapiti Coast beach was linked to wild seas pushing the fish from their normal depth.

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KT   #1   11:31 am Aug 19 2009

I found a dead little blue penguin on the beach about a month ago and reported it to DoC. They came and collected it and I assume, took it away for testing. Could be part and parcel of the same issue here.

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