The council’s senior technical specialist Michael McDonald told the Ensign that his team noticed the Mataura River camera in Gore was facing the wrong way on September 8.
It was showing footage of nearby grass, not the water, and a site inspection showed it had been "deliberately" knocked from its position, he said.
Fortunately, staff were able to reset the camera’s position to continue monitoring the river.
Days after the camera was dislodged, Environment Southland posted on social media outlining the importance of the cameras in collecting a wide range of data.
The cameras collected weather and river flow information that the council used for things like flood protection planning and flood monitoring during adverse weather events.
The regional council also stressed to the Gore public that the cameras collected only environmental data and not personal information of any kind.
Mr McDonald said the camera was one of seven installed around Southland recently to make river information accessible to the public.
The feed and data can be viewed on the organisation’s website.
