Karamea locals are fuming at the brazen destruction of their ancient treasure, a well-known landscape feature for generations.
Four days after a rocksaw was used to cut it out of a riverside rock slab at the mouth of the Little Wanganui River authorities are struggling to work out what, if anything, can be done about it, and experts say the law is a grey area.
A party of three fossil hunters - including some from Hokitika - took the four-foot slab from right under the noses of protesting locals - and lied that they had permission from iwi.
Director of the Otago Palaeogenetics Laboratory at the University of Otago, Dr Nic Rawlence, told the Greymouth Star the law around this was a grey area. He even had a call from police seeking clarification of the law.
It was not illegal, though some councils had rules around fossil collection, Dr Rawlence said.
"If you are going to excavate in such a public place, you need to engage with the local community.
"At the same time we need private collectors," he said, noting that some sites were eroding faster than they could be excavated.
There are stories of West Coast fossils collecting five-figure sums, but Dr Rawlence said he believed this one was not so valuable.
Fossils cannot be sold overseas without a permit from the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, which in turn seeks advice from specialists, and Dr Rawlence said that left a "very, very small market" in New Zealand.
From what he had seen in photos, only the vertebrae and ribs were in the cut slab, so it was not that scientifically important.
West Coast iwi say despite claims from the perpetrators that they had iwi support, they had no such permission.
Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Waewae chairman Francois Tumahai said as kaitiaki of the area, they were saddened by the "desecration".
"We are pleased police are investigating and we hope that those who did this will be held to account for their actions. We can confirm they did not have permission of our hapū to remove this taonga, despite what they may have claimed."
Senior Sergeant Mark Kirkwood said West Coast police were making inquiries, along with the West Coast Regional Council and Department of Conservation.
"Police are aware the fossil has been removed and are working with council in investigating the incident."
People who know of other historic sites have until November 11 to try to get them protected in the new unitary council plan for the West Coast.
Te Tai o Poutini Plan principal planner Lois Eason said the new plan was definitely the place to identify and protect areas that were important to people.
However, "it legally ends at mean high water springs so it wouldn't have helped in the Little Wanganui situation. But could in others - so yes people should submit on this".
Buller Mayor Jamie Cleine wants someone to look at the lack of legal protection for fossils.
"It's outrageous someone would think to do it."
Mr Cleine said social media meant treasured sites, which were once a local secret, could now be found.
"It means sites are getting filmed. They are potentially available to the world. They can hunt them out and do it."
While he would like to see the Karamea fossil returned, he said the damage had been done.
"The sad thing is, it's irreversible what they have done. It will never be the same."
DOC Buller acting operations manager Jacob Fleming said a local ranger had been briefed about the situation and attempted to prevent the removal.
"The ranger was told later that evening that the fossil had been removed," Mr Fleming said.
"The ranger spoke with multiple members of the community who were upset about the situation and what had occurred."
The West Coast Regional Council said a cross agency investigation was progressing well.
The location of the fossil within the Coastal Marine Area was covered by the Regional Coastal Plan. Chief executive Heather Mabin said that no consents had been issued for removal of the object.
The Resource Management Act prevented the removal of any sand, shingle, shell or other natural material from the foreshore.
The story has made headlines, not just in New Zealand.
The New York Times reported it, with the headline: 'In New Zealand, a 23-Million-Year-Old Fossil is Carried Away by Parties Unknown'.
It said a thriving fossil trade had led to similar incidents. In the mid-1990s, fossilised dinosaur footprints were taken in a spate of thefts in Broome, Western Australia.
In the United States, fossils have been pilfered from public lands. And in New Zealand, they have been pulled from the shelves of museums.
"New Zealand has had an uptick in private collecting over the past decade or so," Bobby Boessenecker, a geologist at the College of Charleston in South Carolina and who previously worked in New Zealand, told the New York Times.
"A market for fossils that did not exist 15 years ago is now growing."
Richard Holdaway, a palaeontologist at the University of Canterbury, told the paper that ethically it was "total environmental vandalism".
'It's ruined. Even getting it back, it's not the same'
A Little Wanganui man who tried to stop the removal of the fossil, says someone has suggested a special glue could be used to restore it to the gaping hole left in the rock - if it is ever returned.
Tom Horncastle confronted the trio seen removing the slab at the weekend, but they took it away anyway.
He has had a holiday home in the town since 1956, and has shown the fossil to his children, grandchildren, school children and youth groups.
This morning, he sat down with police and made a statement, but from what he was hearing, the culprits had not broken the law. From what he knew, no one in authority had knocked on the door of those responsible.
"Why can't the police take the rock until they find out who owns it?"
Since it had been cut out, it could not be fixed, Mr Horncastle said.
"It's ruined. Even getting it back, it's not the same."
However, a friend had said there was a special glue which could possibly be used to glue it back in.
Mr Horncastle said he believed social media had played a role in the loss of their treasured fossil.
"I saw it on social media a few months ago."
He could see whale vertebrae selling for $4000 to $4500 online.
