No more hiding for weeds and fish
Northland Regional Council chairman Bill Shepherd is pleased with the public response to a survey that will help steer future management options for invasive weeds and exotic fish in Northland’s lakes, ponds and dams.
The council and NIWA already regularly monitored more than 100 Northland lakes, and had good biological data on them, he said, but the council was keen to know more about another 372 lakes, ponds or dams, all bigger than half a hectare. So earlier this year it called upon hundreds of property owners, just over one-third of them responding.
“We received a total of 141 responses from 121 individual land owners, covering 143 of the 372 water bodies we’re interested in, which is a good response rate for a survey of this kind,” Mr Shepherd said.
“We really appreciate the time and effort responders have put into this process, as these results will be important in steering future management options for exotic invasive weeds and fish.”
Brooke Hartigan, the council’s biodiversity adviser — lakes, echoed those sentiments, saying the survey had identified some key conclusions about the water bodies involved, and resulted in more than a dozen recommendations, including fish removal, training on invasive fish for interested land owners and community members, plans for a public awareness campaign, new signage, and the development of new educational tools for young people.
The creation of a freshwater pests pathways management plan, or site-based plans, for invasive fish and water weeds had also been recommended.
The survey also led to three new records of invasive pest fish species, now being investigated.
Ms Hartigan said eight dune lakes classed as having high or outstanding ecological value, had been prioritised for having exotic fish removed. Respondents had named egeria (oxygen weed) as the most frequently encountered weed, while gambusia and rudd were the most reported fish.
Duck hunting was the most common lake use, 42 per cent of respondents naming it as a past or current activity on their body of water, followed by the use of pumps, hoses and tanks (41 per cent), the use of kayaks, canoes and dinghies (25 per cent) and eel fishing (24 per cent).
More information about the survey at www.nrc.govt.nz/ fishandweedsurvey