A national trout and rivers advocacy the New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers (NZFFA) has strongly opposed the use of chemical sprays to control unwanted weed at the fish out ponds at the Groynes. NZFFA’s president Graham Carter said the use of chemicals would be bad environmental practice.

“I am vehemently opposed to the use of chemical sprays to combat the Lagarosiphon infestation at the fish out ponds at the Groynes,” he said.

“Indeed judging by strong opposition from the Salmon Anglers and North Canterbury Fish and Game the feeling is strong within the angling public. In the Federation's opinion it would be contradictory to Christchurch City Council's ethics and to their current stand against councils, factories and industrial dairying units pouring unwelcome chemical pollutants into the public's waterways”.

If finance was an issue for council, it should be compared to the expense of soil preparation, sowing, mowing etc., of other sports pitches and the fact that a Horizon survey of just a few years ago showed fishing has five times more participants than rugby he said.

“I encourage any sport as wonderful for youngsters but fishing’s benefits both physically and mentally were high among other sports,” he said. “Fishing tends to be highly underrated."

Fishing was a grand pastime for many youngsters once they were introduced to it and the fish out ponds filled that vital need.

“It may mean the end of Take a Kid Fishing for a year failing council backing,” he said. “Almost nothing is spent on the ponds which cater for an average of 200 on a weekend day in the summer.”

Graham Carter suggested the weed could be cut and composted and used for council’s gardening or even bagged and sold to the public to defray expenses.

“In this day and age and environmental awareness, council needs to fully appreciate the value of these fish-out ponds. It’s is bad enough losing fine trout rivers like the nearby Selwyn and Irwell due to irrigation demands and the previous government’s ECAN puppet council."

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