Lake Taupō Aqua Park closure: ‘Canary in the coalmine’
The discovery of invasive freshwater gold clams in a water park near Lake Taupō could be the “canary in the coalmine”, according to a tribal leader who “beseeched” visitors to remain vigilant to stop its spread.
Tūwharetoa Māori Trust Board chief executive Rakeipoho Taiaroa told the
only luck had prevented the spread of gold clams into the iwi’s taonga and “one day our luck could run out”.
Biosecurity New Zealand has temporarily closed Lake Taupō Aqua Park following the discovery of gold clams – which are believed to have arrived two to three years ago as a result of “human activity”.
Taiaroa said an anonymous tip led trust staff to the park, where they found evidence of gold clams and took a water sample for testing.
After the test came back positive, they returned with Biosecurity NZ officials and found a population of adult gold clams in the water. The park was subsequently closed.
The park is less than 500 metres from the Waikato River and a few kilometres north of Lake Taupō.
Biosecurity NZ had thankfully moved pretty quickly ‘‘and they have done the right thing by closing the park, but we have been very lucky again”, Taiaroa said. All it would have taken was for someone to go from the park to the lake
with a live clam for Lake Taupō to be exposed. “It’s by absolute luck this has not arrived here yet ... reliance on luck is fallible.”
Taiaroa “beseeches every visitor to our region to check, clean and dry their boats, fishing gear and anything else that enters the water”.
“We have put a lot of resources and time into this and have trained some of our team to do environmental-DNA testing.
“We do not want this thing here.”
He hoped lessons could be learned from the Aqua Park closure and, “fingers crossed, they [gold clams] won’t be able to survive in the lake”.
“Kinloch is a major worry, there’s a lot of out-of-towners there, similarly at Pukawa, Kuratau and Whareroa.
“If the weather’s bad it’s only a hop, skip and a jump to other lakes and water bodies in the district, such as lakes Ohakuri, Maraetai and Rotoaira.”
Biosecurity NZ director of readiness and response John Walsh said the park had been directed to close for at least two weeks and the agency would work with itsoperators on a long-term plan to manage the biosecurity risk.
“Part of this work will be to determine appropriate options for the management, suppression or removal of the clams.”
Walsh said the Biosecurity Act 1993 allowed for compensation of businesses financially hit by biosecurity response activities and could apply in this case.