Notable news around the Marlborough region

Eyes on the roads
As part of the national Road Safety Week continuing through to Sunday (10 May), local attention is focused on zebra crossings. (No, not the striped animals – the street markings.) Council urges motorists “to slow down, stop and think about their speed near pedestrian crossings”.

Meanwhile, Marlborough Roads closed Thomas Road Bridge in Tuamarina for “extensive underpinning repair work” to address “significant hidden faults to the bridge’s abutments”. The route should reopen on Saturday at 5pm.

Tainted catches
Government testing flagged shellfish from Port Marlborough for surpassing safe levels of biotoxin. The warning zone spans from north of Robin Hood Bay to Robertson Point.

Affected seafood includes mussels, oysters, tuatua, pipi, toheroa, cockles and scallops, as well as pūpū (cat’s eyes) and Cook’s turban. New Zealand Food Safety, which is monitoring the situation, advised that cooking does not remove the paralytic shellfish poisoning toxin.

Wellboat ahoy!
After more than two months at sea, a wellboat serving New Zealand King Salmon completed its voyage from Norway to the Marlborough Sounds on 28 April. The 57m vessel, named the Ronja King, transports live fish in seawater tanks with a capacity of 1,000 cubic metres.

The aquaculture company projects that the wellboat will increase its annual harvest by 2,000 metric tonnes, worth $60 million in revenue. It will play a part in operations of the Blue Endeavour open-ocean farm off Cape Lambert.

Popup for startups
Want to try your hand at entrepreneurship? Business Trust Marlborough is hosting a whirlwind workshop in Blenheim from 5pm on Friday (8 May) to 10pm on Saturday at the Tech Hub.

Startup Studio takes participants from sparking an idea to pitching a business proposal.

Learn more and book a spot at businesstrustmarlborough.co.nz.

Grand opening
Summerset Blenheim opened its new Village Centre building last Thursday (30 April), capping the first stage of an expansion. The facility includes a café open to the public.

Future stages are set to bring serviced apartments, a care centre, a swimming pool, and recreational areas for bowling, pickleball and croquet.