Endangered native fish reappear as trout removed from creek
A three-way biodiversity project partnership is paying off in a creek near Omarama as endangered native fish reappear.
It has been eight years since the collaborative project which, in part, involved Omarama Station, Department of Conservation (DOC) and Environment Canterbury building a fish barrier to keep predatory trout species away from the native fish in a small spring-fed tributary of the Ahuriri River.
The species being protected are the rare lowland longjaw galaxiid (Waitaki River), bignose galaxiid, large upland bullies and other native fish in a small spring-fed tributary of the Ahuriri River in the upper Upper Waitaki River Valley.
Dean Nelson, a DOC ranger said it was ‘‘exciting news’’ to hear ‘‘there is good numbers’’ of the longjaw galaxiids, as well as some bignose galaxiids and large upland bullies, have been spotted after a recent survey.
‘‘It was great to see 17 longjaws from the traps in the top spring and another seven in the traps lower down the stream. This is an indication that the fish are doing well and there are good numbers in the stream,’’ Nelson said.
There are only seven sites where the nationally endangered lowland longjaw galaxiid is found in the Mackenzie Basin, most of them just small springfed streams like the Ahuriri River, Nelson said.
It has been eight years since a collaborative project was completed to protect the habitat.
The project involved fencing off the springhead from livestock, the addition of a fish barrier to prevent trout from predating on the native fish, trout relocation below the barrier, and ongoing monitoring of the native fish.
Landowner Richard Subtil said it’s amazing how quickly the native fish reappeared once the trout were removed.
‘‘It’s given us a great snapshot of what we could have in our waterways,’’ he said.
Subtil said it’s an awesome example of what a collaborative effort can achieve.
‘‘The three-way partnership has worked really well. I’m excited to see how things progress from here,’’ he said.
He said the most interesting part was when they saw the area after they took the trout away, and the numbers increased.
‘‘Unfortunately the native fish in that area are bite size for trout.
‘‘It was interesting when we took out the trout and how many native fish we got in the creek.’’