Greenpeace Aotearoa says its activists "altered" the Rakaia salmon statue, turning it into a cartoon dead fish in protest of the dairy industry's environmental destruction, but the council says it was vandalised. Photo: Supplied
Rakaia's iconic salmon statue has been defaced by Greenpeace protesters, just weeks after a $300,000 ratepayer-funded refurbishment.
Greenpeace said it had "altered" the Rakaia salmon into a cartoon dead fish in protest of dairy industry environmental destruction.
The activists replaced the salmon statue's eyes with cartoon-style crosses and added a speech bubble reading 'Fonterra killed my family'.
Ashburton District Council is less than impressed that its freshly repainted statue has been targeted less than two weeks since it returned from an intensive restoration.
Ashburton mayor Liz McMillan said she accepted "everyone has the right to protest".
"I am disappointed to see our Rakaia salmon has been vandalised. So much effort and care went into the restoration of this community asset."
The council will be inspecting the statue for any damage and has referred the incident to the police.
It's understood that completing the inspection could require the removal of the bollards and hiring a cherry picker - at ratepayer's expense.
Greenpeace Aotearoa freshwater campaigner Will Appelbe said the activists didn't climb or use a ladder on the statue.
"We got it up there safely. We took care not to damage the fish.
"We chose this action to draw attention to the issue and we are confident with what we have done.
"Nothing was used to alter the fish and we haven't left any damage."
The protest action aimed to highlight the damage to the Rakaia River, Appelbe said.
The fish in 2018. Photo: Supplied/ Ashburton District Council
He said the upcoming Rakaia salmon fishing competition "won't involve any fishing this year and it's all because of the dirty dairy industry".
The competition will involve fishing, but the fish just won't be getting weighed in at the prizegiving, instead every entrant goes into the $50,000 prize draw.
Fishing competition president Chris Agnew recently told the Ashburton Guardian said the reason for the big change was that the salmon numbers aren't there, and not just in the Rakaia River, but the Hurunui, Waimakariri or Rangitata rivers.
"The numbers aren't there, and they aren't going to miraculously shoot up."
Removing the weigh-in for the competition highlighted the issues facing the fishery and the river, Agnew said.
Applebe said Greenpeace had used the iconic statue to take aim at the dairy industry.
"To protect the Rakaia - and all the other rivers like it - we must stop dairy expansion now, and reduce herd sizes back to safe ecological limits."
- LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
