‘Tragic’: Thousands of dead eels devastating for Hokonui whānau
The cause of the death of thousands of eels is still unknown as teams work to remove their bodies from waterways in Southland.
Hokonui Rūnaka, Te Ao Mārama and Environment Southland have been working to remove the tuna (eels) from Low Burn Stream and surrounding waterways near Mataura River after receiving a report of the mass death last week.
The work to recover them from the water has been distressing for volunteers as Environment Southland’s investigation into the cause continued.
Riki Parata, the Kaiārihi Taiao for Hokonui Rūnaka, said the discovery was “tragic”.
Volunteers from the Hokonui Rūnaka Wai Māori team monitor tuna for research, and have been trapping and transferring juvenile tuna from Mātaura Falls in the Mātaura River Mātaitai (customary fishing reserve).
The rōpū was set up to protect taonga species, including tuna, so to see so many tuna dead was “quite emotional”, Parata said.
“We work daily with tuna in this area, so to see this is very confronting.
“It’s a hell of a lot of tuna in a very small stream.”
Tuna are an important taonga species for Ngāi Tahu and Hokonui Rūnaka.
They are essential to the continuation of mahika kai (food gathering) for many iwi, are the focus of countless stories, artefacts and waiata, and can be used as an ecological health indicator to assess water and habitat quality.
Parata said it was devastating for volunteers, who had discovered at least 400 dead tuna in a 500-metre stretch of Low Burn Stream.
“I want to appeal to people to treat our waterways with more respect,” he said.
“They’re not drains. We need to look after our awa. It’s precious.”
Donna Ferguson, Environment Southland’s compliance manager, said the council’s teams had removed more than 2600 juvenile and adult tuna, and more were still floating in the water.
“The staff that were on site were highly distressed looking at that number of tuna effected,” Ferguson said.
“It is concerning that we are losing our breeding stock, and the potential to restore them in that waterway is even more alarming.”
While there was potential the mass death may have been organic, the investigation was ongoing, she said.
Up to 10 other dead fish have also been removed from the area, Ferguson said.
Cohen Stewart, a field officer for Southland Fish & Game, said the mass death would have a “huge impact on that fresh water ecosystem”.
“Eels are probably the heartiest of all of our indigenous species, so for thousands of them to die like this is pretty devastating. But it’s obvious too, that other native fish that are more pollution sensitive are likely to have been killed as well.”
Stewart said while Southland was a stronghold for longfin and shortfin populations, the deaths appeared to be localised to the Low Burn Stream area.
He urged anyone who discovered any other dead fish to report them to Environment Southland, and fish cautiously while the investigation was ongoing.
“Where the Ota Creek flows into the Mataura River, it is just upstream from the popular Coal Pit Rd fishing access, so we’d be advising anglers not to eat any fish from that area until the cause of the mass mortality is confirmed.“
The public were urged to report any discolouration or potential pollutants to Environment Southland using the 24/7 pollution hotline, 0800 76 88 45.