A whale that died at a New Zealand beach has been buried by a public walkway where locals say they can smell the carcass and see oozing pink liquid.
The whale became stranded at Redcliffs, a beach in Christchurch, over a week ago and its body was lifted out of the estuary to be taken to an undisclosed location, but Southshore residents say it has ended up next to a public walkway.
Local Sue McKenna said since last week there'd been a large amount of earthworks by a walkway used to access Ihutai estuary.
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"If you get close to where the work happened there's foul smelling pink liquid bubbling up from below this huge pile of sand," she said.
"We realised the reason behind the smell and the liquid was that the council had buried the dead whale there."
McKenna said the carcass was buried within 100 metres of homes and the walkway was frequented by families, bikers, walkers and runners.
"The council had no communication with the community, and there's no consideration for the hundreds of people who walk the track and are now subject to the smell of decomposition."
The area had also been left in an "appalling state" following the burial, McKenna said.
"They pulled down fences and left them lying on the ground, churned up the area where park rangers had planted natives and left the burial site in a state - it looks like a bomb recently exploded!
"There were many other more appropriate places to bury the whale on this public land."
McKenna labelled the way the burial had been handled as "shameful".
"The local residents association was not informed and the community were deprived of the right to attend the burial," she said.
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Christchurch City Council's acting head of parks, Rupert Bool, said the location for the burial was chosen because of its proximity to where the stranding occurred and it was guided by mana whenua.
"The site was also the most practical for the access of heavy machinery needed to transport the whale to the site," he said.
No formal complaints had been received about the smell, Bool said, but locals had complained to rangers on site about it.
"Following the burial there have been body fluids leaking from the whale as it breaks down, which were unable to drain away," he said.
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"Extra sand and soil has been mounded over the site to prevent any more fluid coming out onto the accessway which has reduced the smell and fluids are no longer visible."
Bool said the council may need to continue doing this over coming weeks as the body continued to decompose.
Cable from nearby bollards was pulled down to access the site, Bool said, but that would be fixed once staff were confident no more machinery was needed to access the site.
Bool said they had been careful to ensure no native plantings were damaged.
This article has been reproduced with permission from stuff.co.nz.
