CHLOE RANFORD LOCAL DEMOCRACY REPORTER Last updated 14:55, February 16 2021 RICKY WILSON/STUFF
Burkhart Fisheries founders Dennis Burkhart, left, and Trevor Burkhart have been fishing for 46 years.
A crayfishing company that won a five-year battle for the right to dig boat launching areas on a Marlborough beach might be forced to apply for a new consent as the sites fill with gravel quicker than anticipated.
“We’re back out fishing, but it’s been very difficult. The launch site was OK for a couple of days, but then it filled in . Our resource consent gives us flexibility, but we’re only allowed so many dig outs,” Burkhart Fisheries co-founder Dennis Burkhart said.
When the Marlborough District Council finished writing its new environment plan in June 2016, it had no idea a one-in-5000-year quake would strike near Kaikōura five months later.
An area of the Marlborough coastline affected by the Kaikōura earthquake.
Photo: Chloe Ranford
It had already drawn a line separating land and sea - and the rules for each - when the quake raised the region s coastline out of the ocean, in some places up to 6 metres.
Four years on, and almost a year after finalising Marlborough s environment masterplan , the line had still not been changed.
Several rugby pitch fields worth of land along Marlborough s east coast is still zoned coastal marine - an area where ships can legally anchor and residents can surf, sail or swim.
Seabed raised by Kaikōura quake proposed for rezoning as coastal land stuff.co.nz - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from stuff.co.nz Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.