Copyright 1998 Wellington Newspapers Limited

The Evening Post (Wellington)

April 14, 1998

SECTION: NEWS; NATIONAL; Pg. 9

LENGTH: 141 words

HEADLINE: Tests show no sign of harbour bloom

BODY:

A toxic algal bloom which devastated Wellington Harbour's sea life and made more than 80 swimmers ill, appears to have vanished.

Wellington region Medical Officer of Health Stephen Palmer said tests conducted over the past two weekends showed no sign of the algae.

As well, no swimmers had reported suffering irritated eyes, throat or nose, thought to be the affect of the algae, since March 27.

He said it appeared that stormy weather in late March broke up the algae.

Afterwards there was a lot of white froth on the sea, believed to be the dead algae, but there were no reports of it affecting swimmers.

Dr Palmer said the results of tests conducted over Easter weekend would be available later in the week and were expected to be clear.

Testing will continue weekly as part of the national biotoxins monitoring programme.

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

LOAD-DATE: April 15, 1998