ORC considering special lake buoy
THE Otago Regional Council has not ruled out buying a scientific monitoring buoy for Lake Wanaka.
The council was criticised this week by ORC member Michael Laws and former New Zealand academic and freshwater scientist Prof David Hamilton for not funding a scientific monitoring buoy for the lake.
This followed news the Lake Wanaka Trust had sought funding for a buoy from a potential overseas property buyer, and that other regional councils had paid for up to 16 scientific monitoring buoys for New Zealand lakes.
ORC chairman Stephen Woodhead responded yesterday, saying investing in a scientific buoy would depend on the results of a trial of a similar deepwater buoy in Lake Manapouri and a National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa) review of the ORC’s water quality monitoring programme.
ORC staff were closely following the Environment Southland/ University of Waikato profiling monitoring system buoy that was deployed in Lake Manapouri in December as ‘‘it could be suitable for Otago’s deep alpine and Southern lakes.’’
Although there had been requests to fund scientific monitoring buoys in the past, Mr Woodhead said ORC staff had advised him they were not suitable for deepwater lakes, in particular Lake Wanaka (300m deep) and Lake Wakatipu (more than 400m deep).
Historically, the buoys had been ‘‘expensive and difficult to operate’’, but there were now some cheaper, more efficient and more practical versions being developed.
Decisions about future monitoring of the region’s waterways would be made after Niwa gave its State of the Environment water quality report in July.
He noted the draft ORC 201718 annual plan included $9.8 million for waterrelated work programmes, a significant increase in the budget.
The increase would allow new projects such as a feasibility study into restoring three degraded waterways — Lake Tuakitoto, Tomahawk Lagoon and Lake Hayes.
The ORC was disappointed a Catchments Otago bid to the Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE) Endeavour Fund titled ‘‘Sustaining the Southern Great Lakes: integrating research and management for sustainable ecosystems, communities and economies’’ was unsuccessful earlier this year, as the ORC had contributed direct financial support and the inclusion of one of its science team, Dr Adam Uytendaal, as a key individual in the proposal, which was a collaboration with the University of Otago, Mr Woodhead said.
ORC science work fulfilled a ‘‘realworld’’ natural resource management role to inform policy and management of Otago’s lakes and rivers.
‘‘It is not our role to commit regional ratepayers’ money to fund scientific inquisitions or scientificfocused monitoring for universities to study.’’
It had commissioned Dr Phil Novis from Landcare Research to determine the genetic basis and origin of ‘‘lake snow’’ and had supported a bid by Dr Novis to the MBIE Smart Fund to develop monitoring technology to detect and quantify the algae.
The developer of autonomous water quality monitoring buoys, University of Waikato research officer Chris McBride, said lake monitoring buoys similar to the Lake Manapouri instrument had been operating successfully on New Zealand lakes for several years.
Mr McBride has been commissioned to develop a scientific monitoring buoy for Lake Wanaka by University of Otago freshwater scientist Marc Schallenberg, which can operate at a depth of 120m, which Dr Schallenberg believes is deep enough to get sufficient results.
kerrie.waterworth@odt.co.nz