Death to Native Fish Habitat

[supasi]

Some of you who read my blog or have read some of my past posts about my exploration trips to some local streams may recognize the following pictures.

These were taken about April 2010.

The location was very rich in native aquatic life. Eels, Bullies, Koura, Shrimp, Inanga, Smelt and the list goes on.

Due to a fair bit of rain during September and October and then being flat out at work in the lead up to Xmas, I had been unable to visit this location.

Today I went back to see if I could capture another Inanga to go with my single one in my Native tank at home.

I was in complete shock.

The following pictures show what I saw.

As you can see, the tree cover has been totally removed and the whole stream has been dug out.

I has sent an email to my contact at the local Regional Council asking if I can have some information about the stream. Basically why they have done it, and what are they going to do with it.

It cant be for flood prevention as the stream is about 8 feet below the road level and the culvit would not allow enough water through to cause flooding in this location.

One thing of concern is that now there is no way for fish to travel upstream. As can be seen in the first photo of this post the water level is much higher and this was about as low as water levels ever got. Now there is a huge gap that will stop most fish from moving upstream.

I went further upstream which is normally teeming with inanga, smelt and bullies and all I found was one Smelt and one large eel. There is an obvious lack of fish life upstream.

This is a Giant Bullie who was a resident in the pool below the culvert

I wonder what the fate of him and his friends was.

[phoenix44]

Is that the same place we went to?

Maybe they are improving it? (long term) :dunno:

[supasi]

Is that the same place we went to?

Maybe they are improving it? (long term) :dunno:

Yes this is the place I took you first. The one among the trees down the bank.

Yes I do hope that it will re-establish , but the biggest concerns are the lack of shelter that the trees provided and the culvert. It is still early days and when I hear back from the guy at the council hopefully it will shed some light.

One thing for sure is I will fight for the culvert to be changed if it is not sorted by the contractors.

I will let you guys know what the council has to say when I hear from them

[smidey]

to me that looks like a clean up to improve flow. they have removed any inhibiting vegetation & widened the stream. i think once the toitoi or similar grows back it will be similar again just without the trees. for it to have three culvert pipes it must see some major flow at some point of the year.

[spoon]

our property has under gone similar works where the creek that surrounds our property has had a damaged culvert repalced and the floodwall next to the creek is being built up.

for ages after the culvert collapsed there was nothing but eels upstream of the culvert they trapped and shifted a lot of them so they werent landlocked they also cleared all the vegetation along either side of the stream and that which was growing in the stream (think live willow branches and grass) the culvert was only repaired 3 weeks ago and already i see we have whitbait above the culvert as well assmall bullys that water is also healthier looking and less stagnant we dont seem to have as many eel as some of the remaining ones may have moved to deeper water as the creek is very shallow now (less than 20cm in some areas compared to >1m or 2m in flood)

the banks will revegate quickly but the culvert is a concern if fish cant swim up it

[supasi]

to me that looks like a clean up to improve flow. they have removed any inhibiting vegetation & widened the stream. i think once the toitoi or similar grows back it will be similar again just without the trees. for it to have three culvert pipes it must see some major flow at some point of the year.

Yes and No

The stream does carry a bit of water during flooding. But in the many years I have known this stream it has never flooded its banks. In fact it barely rose to a height of significance as the flow is restricted to the size of the culvert.

The over hanging trees meant that the stream was mostly shaded the whole day with only dappled light reaching the water. This is the reason I believe there was such a wealth of fish and invert life here. Without the shade there will be significan weed growth as can be found upstream further which actually chokes the waterway.

I have no problem with streams being cleaned up, but when it is detrimental to the well being of Native Fauna that I am against.

I may see if I can find out if it definitely is council land(its on the roadside, I dont think it is Transit NZ land as it has water tanks. Thats what the pipe in the pics is from) and if it is I may suggest to them that it may be made into a fish friendly site.

[supasi]

our property has under gone similar works where the creek that surrounds our property has had a damaged culvert repalced and the floodwall next to the creek is being built up.

for ages after the culvert collapsed there was nothing but eels upstream of the culvert they trapped and shifted a lot of them so they werent landlocked they also cleared all the vegetation along either side of the stream and that which was growing in the stream (think live willow branches and grass) the culvert was only repaired 3 weeks ago and already i see we have whitbait above the culvert as well assmall bullys that water is also healthier looking and less stagnant we dont seem to have as many eel as some of the remaining ones may have moved to deeper water as the creek is very shallow now (less than 20cm in some areas compared to >1m or 2m in flood)

the banks will revegate quickly but the culvert is a concern if fish cant swim up it

Yes I agree spoon that the fish will return, what I am afraid of is the loss of fish friendly surrounds.

I am serious, most would not believe how much fish were present in this section of the stream compared to upstream.

This is upstream

That photo was taken during the cooler months. I went there today and you can barely see the water and there is so much watercress its harvested by many locals.

I guess for me there is a lot of emotion involved in my posts as this is a place close to where I live that I would spend hours watching and exploring. All the other places I used to go are gone or are polluted and overgrown.

Wont stop me finding out more about it and trying to do something about it.

[Mikey]

That is a dramatic before and after... that sucks.

Good luck with the council and getting the information out of them, hope you get some answers.

I have recently found an awesome spot and would be gutted if it ever got taken apart like your spot has.

Which reminds me... I need to go get some photos so I can share with everyone on here

[supasi]

Today I received an email from Horizons Regional Council.

It appears that they are also now concerned and thanked me for the heads up.

A couple of people are now looking into it to make sure that the completed works will comply to the appropriate consent conditions.

Areas of concern are (quoted from email from Council)

(h) The activity must be undertaken in a manner that provides for the safe passage of fish both upstream and downstream, including past any structure (it appears because of the works that this culvert will no longer be fish passable).

(j) Upon completion of any channel bank works, the banks must be reinstated to a natural contour and revegetated (this is vital for this stream as it is known as inanga spawning habitat and spawning starts in February with the fish requiring established vegetation to spawn on).

An Environmental Compliance Officer has been sent to view the site and look into it further.

I am so glad I raised my concerns with them now. Hopefully things can be done to fix it. It will never be the same but hopefully it can be made more fish friendly

[antwan]

Great work Simon

[Stella]

GO SIMON!!!!! :bounce: :happy1: :happy2:

[blueether]

It will still take many years to return to anything like the state it was in though :tears:

[Aquila]

Great work Simon!

Horizons is normally really good about this stuff, so hopefully they will come down on them and enforce the consent conditions.

I also sent you an email.

Cheers, Milena

[supasi]

I returned to the stream to take some photos of the regeneration of a habitat.

The scene looks much better than my last visit but still not in a state that I am happy with. My main concern is the height of the culvert out fall being too high for fish to pass. Although I was told by a person at Horizons Regional Council that the issue was being looked at, nothing has happened.

As can be seen there is regeneration of plant growth on the banks. The Elodea Canadensis has continued to grow on the deep pool below the culvert.

The stream bed is still very muddy ( I was sinking up to my knees in the mud while standing in the water) but there is an amount of wood debris building up which is providing refuge for the fish which are present

The stream is abundant with small fish. Mainly young Inanga and Smelt.

This makes me more concerned as these fish would usually pass upstream further but are restricted by the hanging culvert. There were no obvious signs of an Bullies, although this is not a definate indication as Bullies tend to be Nocturnal in behaviour and the lack of overhanging trees meant any that were present would be in hiding.

Young fish can be seen near the top left of the above image.

A large amount of algae has formed, almost carpeting the stream bed due to the lack of overhanging trees. This has exposed the water to almost all day direct sunlight.

As the banks have been dug out it has created a restriction of the riparian growth that will be available for Inanga to spawn in. This site was known to be a spawning area for these fish.

My next trip back will be with a spotlight to see what the life is like during the hours of darkness.

[Mikey]

Good to see there has been some recovery... still not at pre-work conditions, so hopefully it can continue to regenerate and get closer to what it was before, although from what your photos and description show the riparian cover is going to struggle to regenerate at all.

I guess going spotlighting will be the telling factor... most of the streams in my area seem completely devoid of life during the day... might see the odd splash, but at night is a totally different story...

I am hopeful that you will find a bustling underwater community in there when you shine your lights in

Thanks for the update Supasi.