It was disgusting, it was selfish, it was inconsiderate – and it was starting to whiff.

Someone had gone down to the water's edge at Rotary Park and dumped a sack full of fish skeletons just above the high-tide mark.

The remains of the day: Fish carcases are getting up local's nose.

'No they hadn't been washed up,” says a proud but disappointed Maungatapu resident Brian Campbell. The beach, his beach, looked like the gutting room at a fish factory.

'Somebody had gone down there under cover of darkness when no-one was around and hoped they were safe.”

Brian is certain the culprits just emptied the sack of carcasses off the seawall last Monday night 'in the hope the mess would just go away, the seagulls would get it and they wouldn't get caught”.

He and other locals walking their dogs the next morning were livid.

'Rotary Park is a beautiful park, a beautiful part of the city. We are proud of it and care about it. We do not want it abused and disrespected,” says Brian. But it's not just illegal dumping that's getting up local noses.

Brian takes Hugo, his labradoodle, down to the park for a walk most mornings as do many other local dog owners. 'We are all conscious of our responsibilities. We always take our little plastics bags and clean up.” And he appeals to the better sense of others to follow the example.

'If you sat up in the trees with binoculars or got a still camera down there you would be surprised at the number of owners who take their dogs there to do their business. Especially in the evening.”

There are many unaccompanied dogs on the loose in the park using it as a toilet.

'It gives responsible dog owners a bad name.”

He appeals to people to clean up and care for a beautiful local facility.

The dumping of the fish skeleton is probably in breach of the Tauranga City Council's street use and public places bylaw.

It's illegal to drop or deposit any material or anything in a public place and especially anything that could be hazardous, injurious or likely to create a nuisance.

The bylaw's aimed at ensuring public health and safety is maintained. Brian and friends would no doubt argue the fish skeletons constituted a nuisance, and therefore a breach.