Nasty secrets laid bare in big clean-up

Skateboards, grease guns, a car axle - even an old toilet.

These are some of the "absolutely disgusting" rubbish divers found in Tauranga Harbour during a big clean-up.

As part of the city's twice-yearly harbour spruce-up, members of the Tauranga Sub-Aqua Club made many unpleasant discoveries, including the ceramic toilet bowl.

The club's operations manager, Mark Polley, said the clean-up was the second carried out by the group in recent months.

"The harbour is in really bad shape and there's rubbish everywhere - it's just not how it's meant to be. Some people throw everything in the water and it just piles up."

Tauranga Environment Centre spokeswoman Karen Summerhays praised the divers' efforts, which fit with the centre's Environment Ministry-funded plans to set up 10 volunteer care groups.

Each group will adopt a 1ha public-owned area of the city, weeding, picking up rubbish and replanting, with the support of experts from Environment Bay of Plenty and Tauranga City Council.

- NZPA