They've gone! The ugly encrusted and abandoned posts in oyster lease OL86/140 have at last been removed. The lease boundary posts remain but now the water is largely clear of an environmental and visual blight that has taken a very long time for Fisheries to acknowledge and addess.
We don't know exactly what happens next. We are led to believe that the lease holder may try a suspended net system for oyster farming. Whatever, we trust that any future installation is designed to leave a less damaging environmental foot print. It will be interesting to see if water flow rates increase now resulting in a diminished sediment problem.
Meanwhile our thanks go to the lease holder for cleaning up the mess. But especially to Janine Reid in her unrelenting pursuit of Fisheries over many years to take action over the disgraceful legacy of unused leases in our waters.
Tony Hann
