Media release from Eastern Fish & Game

Fish & Game: Slip Won't Harm Lake Stocking

Anglers have been assured that a destructive slip which hit Eastern Fish & Game Region’s hatchery at Ngongotaha in torrential rain – hasn’t harmed its stocking programme due to get underway next month.

Eastern Region Manager Rob Pitkethley says the slip happened on the morning of January 8th in heavy rain - on a steeply forested slope above the hatchery’s water supply.

“Rocks, trees, gravel and other debris tumbled onto the pipes which feed water from a stream to the hatchery building, shattering and knocking out two of the supply lines.”

Alarms went off and we urgently called in every available staff member to tackle the emergency, he says. “We used some real Kiwi DIY techniques which included good old duct tape, and had good quality flowing water back to our ponds within an hour.”

Rob says they used fire pumps kindly loaned by the Department of Conservation to pump water into the hatchery and outdoor trout pools, and also fed oxygen into this emergency water supply

“We’re very grateful for the support from DoC who also agreed to ‘babysit’ 50,000 young fish for us at their Turangi hatchery - so that we could get these fish off the hatchery site to safety, while we tackled the water supply issues.”

We suffered some fish losses, he adds, but in total only a couple of bucketfuls of young trout. And at this time of the year the hatchery always has additional fish stocks on hand. Fish raised in the hatchery have not yet been “counted out” into the ponds where they’re grown to release size.

The hatchery also has insurance cover for such events.

Rob Pitkethley says that over the past week, officers have been able to establish a more secure emergency supply – while plans are made for more permanent repairs. “We’ll take the opportunity to make the supply more secure - and allow us to deal quickly with any future dramas.”

We want to reassure both local anglers and future visitors to the Rotorua lakes that the fishery won’t suffer any impact whatsoever from what has been a time consuming but only temporary setback. And we’ll be pushing ahead with the first of this year’s fish releases next month as planned, he says.

ENDS

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