An apparent compromise has been reached on the Oamaru Blue Penguin Colony's new red fences, which this week created a social media brouhaha.
The newly erected fencing at New Zealand's first and only penguin underpass, in Oamaru, came under fire online after the fencing was first noticed and photographs were posted on social media.
Waitaki Mayor Gary Kircher became involved when he wrote on his mayoral Facebook page ''It has to go!''
This week he met Tourism Waitaki general manager Jason Gaskill to discuss the fence and said it would be lowered where it extended away from the entrance to the underpass.
The fencing at the base of the breakwater, erected at the same time, would be shortened.
''It's not going to please everyone, but the way [the fences] were certainly didn't please me, but we had a good discussion about it, I've expressed my concerns, they've expressed their reasons, and we've come up with something,'' Mr Kircher said.
''Something had to happen there ... we'll see how it looks once they've do the modification and I'm hoping that that will be sufficient to put most people's minds to rest on the matter.''
Mr Gaskill said the meeting with the mayor was positive and the fencing would be modified ''as soon as we possibly can''.
''Having spoken with the mayor, we understand better the process that we need to through to undertake these works. We will do that,'' he said.
''We are working to make sure we have an agreeable outcome for all interested parties without compromising the original intent, which was to create a secure environment for the penguins.''
Mr Kircher said part of the initial negative reaction to the fencing was that the fences seemed to appear overnight and without warning: change at the harbour was a sensitive topic for a lot of people.
''There's a greater awareness from Tourism Waitaki and within council that when we're talking about changes down there that there are other people that need to be part of the discussion,'' Mr Kircher said.
