Divers want to move sea creatures from marina

Marlborough scuba divers on the doorstep of a marina development want to move some of the sea’s often overlooked rock dwellers before construction starts.

Local divers who regularly run lessons at the northwestern point of Waikawa Marina have come across seahorses, stingrays, starfish, sea cucumbers and fan-worms where the $20 million development will be built.

Waikawa Dive Centre owner Stuart Scaife says they are ‘‘all for progress’’ and the extra 252 berths will be good for Picton, but the marina extension needs to be good for the environment as well.

An impact assessment of the marine area was conducted in order to gain resource consent. The report said the planned extension would not have ‘‘significant adverse impacts’’ on the marine ecology of Waikawa Bay or the wider Queen Charlotte Sound.

But Scaife was worried the ‘‘life that exists beneath’’ could be lost.

‘‘As a non-diver, most people just see the sea out there, and what’s above it,’’ he said. ‘‘Obviously the fish life you can’t move, but it’s the animals, the marine life that is attached to the rocks. A starfish isn’t going to outrun a bulldozer.’’

Scaife conceded that moving the marine life would not change the ecology of Waikawa Bay. ‘‘But we’d like to take it out of one area and improve another.

‘‘Until we actually get down there and start moving stuff, I have know idea what the volumes will be, how much we can move.

‘‘I imagine it won’t just be one dive, I imagine it will be spread over several weekends.’’

Port Marlborough chief executive Rhys Welbourn said he liked the idea of moving marine life from the construction zone, but couldn’t say if it would go ahead. ‘‘It’s quite early, so I can’t say yes or no to what we’re going to do.’’

Dives to assess marine life and seabeds for the resource consent showed ‘‘very little life in terms of specific species’’ in that area, Welbourn said. ‘‘That’s not to say that doing something like [the dive] wouldn’t be a bad idea.’’

The port company had put together a ‘‘comprehensive suite of plans’’ to protect the environment, he said.

Marlborough District Council coastal scientist Oliver Wade said he thought the divers would be able to relocate the marine life without a resource consent. ‘‘The only concern from me would be biosecurity matters, depending on where they’re proposing to move things to.’’