We risk frittering away one of our national delicacies
It might still be a surprise to some that one of New Zealand’s national delicacies, and part of an iconic kiwi pastime, is made up of threatened species.
These threatened species are known as whitebait and are the juveniles of five different native freshwater fish species in the Galaxiidae family, mostly found only in New Zealand. Four of these species have been classified by the Department of Conservation (DOC) in 2013 as at risk or threatened with extinction.
Whitebait were once so plentiful that they were fed to chickens and used as a garden fertiliser. However, the adults of these species are declining in numbers and their distribution is shrinking. This is showing up in declining numbers in whitebait runs. The main culprits are deteriorating water and habitat quality over much of the country, with much of their spawning habitat destroyed or degraded by land-use activities and barriers to migration.
Adding to these pressures is allowing the juveniles to be commercially harvested. That’s right, here in New Zealand, we allow a threatened species to be caught and sold for profit. It is inexplicable that we often condemn other countries for decimating or hunting their native wildlife and is also hypocritical when we are signatories to the global ban on trade in endangered species (CITES).
Four of these five species have the same threat ranking as some species of kiwi. The Conservation Minister, Maggie Barry, has argued that we shouldn’t eat kereru because they are protected species and says that ‘‘it is not appropriate to eat threatened species, full stop’’ (incidentally kereru are not listed as a threatened species). Bizarrely New Zealand’s freshwater native fish have no protection under law; even trout (an introduced species) has more protection than our threatened native fish.
Whitebaiting has a long history in New Zealand, and we want our children, grandchildren, and further future generations to enjoy this pastime. Sadly, with the way things are going, these fish will be gone before most of our grandchildren will even be able to see them. At the current rate of decline, all New Zealand native freshwater fish species will be extinct by 2050.
While commercial harvesting of whitebait species is not the biggest cause of their decline, it is an extra pressure on the species that we can easily stop. Stopping the commercial harvest will buy us some extra time to sort out New Zealand’s freshwater issues.
One whitebait fritter contains about 500 fish and it is estimated that this takes close to 650,000 eggs to produce. If you sell whitebait, you can make a huge difference by taking a stand and refusing to sell these precious threatened species. As a consumer, you could boycott shops and restaurants selling whitebait. We can also protect and develop spawning areas to help with rearing the next generation of juveniles. These steps would help in working towards conserving these species so people can continue to enjoy them for generations to come.
A petition to ban the commercial harvest of whitebait will be presented to Parliament so we can start to turn around the decline in whitebait species.
Kyleisha Foote has a Masters of Environmental Management and is a research assistant at Massey University in environmental science. Pierce McNie has a Masters of Science in Ecology which focused on freshwater ecology. He is doing freelance work in data analysis and fieldwork relating to ecology.
At the current rate of decline, all New Zealand native freshwater fish species will be extinct by 2050.