If more whitebait stands keep going up along the Taieri, someone might get hurt, a local fisherman reckons.
''Someone's going to get stabbed or fall in the water,'' Mosgiel resident Shaun Buchanan said.
With the whitebait season starting tomorrow, Mr Buchanan estimated there were already more than 20 stands, almost double the number last year.
''Last year, there were about 10 or 12 stands, which was bearable.''
Mr Buchanan's beef with the whitebaiters is manyfold: he objects to the stands he says do not get taken down at the end of the season, the rubbish he says their builders leave, and the destruction he says the stands wreak on other fish's habitat.
''A lot of [the stands] are due to fall in the river,'' he said.
''They have a big impact on fish ... They're removing the willow trees and raupo.
''Wee fish hide in there; bigger fish will go and sit under a willow tree. There's no fish habitat for them to hide or breed.''
Mr Buchanan said he was not opposed to whitebaiting - ''we used to whitebait with a net when I was about 10'', he said.
But he thought the stands were getting out of hand.
''Now everyone seems to think they need a stand, a lot of them are ... [of poor quality].''
Otago Regional Council environmental monitoring and operations director Jeff Donaldson said the council had received complaints about whitebait stands along the Taieri, Clutha, and Waikouaiti rivers this year.
''We believe there are more structures present this year than there have been in the last few years,'' he said.
There were two pieces of legislation that could regulate whitebait stand construction - the Resource Management Act, which set out terms for construction in the bed of a river, and an ORC bylaw, which applied if the construction was between a floodbank and a river.
Mr Donaldson said an ORC staff member had been out along the Taieri yesterday and found 45 stands.
''But the people weren't at them, so we don't know if they've got permits,'' he said.
''We don't even know who they are ... so we're going to have to do some investigation to determine whether they have permits or consent.''
Mr Donaldson said the council would have to look at a ''plan of attack'' to check if stands were legal across the region and they ''must be consistent''.
