Taupō Aqua Park closure the ‘canary in the coal mine’
The discovery of invasive freshwater gold clams in a water park near Lake Taupō could be the “canary in the coal mine”, 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 Waikato Times only luck had prevented the spread of gold clams into the iwi’s precious taonga and “one day our luck could run out”.
Biosecurity New Zealand(BNZ) has temporarily closed Lake Taupō Aqua Park following the discovery of gold clams - which they believe arrived two to three years ago due to “human activity”.
Taiaroa said the discovery came about after an anonymous tip led staff from the trust to the park where they discovered evidence of gold clams and took a water sample away for environmental-DNA testing. After the test came back positive, they returned with BNZ officials and found a population of adult gold clams in the water and the park was subsequently closed.
The park is less than 500m from the Waikato River and a few kilometres north of Lake Taupō.
“BNZ thankfully moved pretty quickly ... and they have done the right thing by closing the park, but we have been very lucky again,” Taiaroa said.
He said all it would have taken was for someone to go from the park to the lake with a live clam in their pocket 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 hopes lessons can be learned from the Aqua Park closure and, “fingers crossed, they 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.”
The owners of Lake Taupō Aqua Park have been approached for comment, but are yet to respond. But BNZ director of readiness and response John Walsh said the park’s operators had been directed to close for at least two weeks and BNZ would work with them on a long-term plan to manage the biosecurityrisk.
“Part of this work will be to determine appropriate options for the management, suppression, or removal of the clams.”