Department of Conservation staff have cautioned boat users to steer clear of whales after a boat ventured dangerously close to a southern right whale off the Dunedin coast on Wednesday.
Signs warning against swimming in the Clutha River are likely to be installed before summer but the Clutha Management Committee remains dubious about their merits.
A group of parents is calling on the Dunedin City Council to fence the new playground at Bayfield Park next to Andersons Bay inlet, saying there are too many risks for it to be a safe play area for their children.
Eleven people drowned in New Zealand last month, with 20 in the first two months of the year - a significant decrease over last year's figure of 32.
Go paddling in Otago rivers but "steer clear" of anything that looks black and slimy, the Otago Regional Council advises, in the wake of toxic algae being discovered in the Silver Stream at Mosgiel.
Drownings in the southern region have more than doubled in the past 12 months and many of them were caused by "ignorance and a blase attitude to safety".