FISH & GAME NZ

The Pot calling the Kettle black?

Fish and Game’s mission: Effective management of New Zealand’s sports fish & game resources.

Fish & Game manages, maintains and enhances sports fish and game birds, and their habitats, in the best long-term interests of present and future generations of anglers and hunters. They are a not-for-profit organisation, funded through the sale of fishing and hunting licenses.

Fish & Game tells Horizons ‘stop squirming and act'


Horizons Council told to stop trying to squirm out of its responsibilities

Fish & Game Chief Executive Martin Taylor says Horizons Chairman Bruce Gordon needs to face reality and do his job and ensure the One Plan is implemented.

“Instead of chasing a few river awards it would be better for him to concentrate on implementing the One Plan.”

The One Plan is designed to manage natural resources throughout the Whanganui and Manawatu regions and in particular, tackle pollution, improve water quality and preserve environmental diversity.

Martin Taylor says the Horizons chairman is out of step with public opinion and farming’s new direction.

“The One Plan shows how farming can be both economically and environmentally sustainable while maintaining water quality for New Zealand’s longer term future.

I fail to see if it is both economically and environmentally sustainable then why would Horizons Regional Council want to spend time and money making changes to the plan. Any person with some knowledge of farming can see that the plan as it was written and enacted, made most farming totally unsustainable and that was why the council tried to take a pragmatic view of the rules.

So Fish & Game are now positioning themselves as environmentalists who care deeply about water quality and environmental diversity, yet in the Waikato area adjacent to the Whangamarino Wetland they own a large area of land (730 ha) that they rent out to hunters for game bird shooting and this land has a large infestation of pampas grass on it.

Fish & Game in conjunction with the Department of Conservation (DOC) in 1992 applied for and were granted; consent to place a weir in the Whangamarino River to as DOC stated in the application, restore swamp habitat for native swamp flora and fauna.

The Auckland/Waikato Fish and game Council’s objective was to restore wildfowl hunting on the areas of water created by the weir.

This project hoped to restore approximately 1465ha of swamp habitat

No consideration was given to the environmental desecration of both the Highmore flora and fauna and the birdlife nesting sites within the dry swamp floor by flooding the swamp.

Artificially keeping the water levels high has also prevented the natural flushing actions related to natural weather conditions and has reduced the water quality rather than improving it. Raising the water level in the swamp has caused sediment issues as the dammed water has spread out into the swamp and deposited silt that would naturally flow down the river. The lack of any natural flushing has also greatly increases the potential for the wetland waterways to become anoxic and kill more native flora and fauna.

Prior to the Weir construction, the Whangamarino wetland was an outstanding example of a Highmore Peat Dome – or dry peat swamp that became a wetland in the winter. Historical evidence from early settlers confirms how dry it was in summer and how they used to walk across the swamp to Mercer. Some earlier settlers grew barley in the swamp.

There was I believe another motive in seeking higher water levels. Fish and Game have since created a lunar landscape of duck ponds around the wetland and needed higher water levels to make these attractive to duck shooters during the duck season. It provides F&G with a lucrative form of revenue as the larger the wetland area, the greater numbers of hunters that will rent ponds and buy hunting licences.

Unfortunately higher water levels also allow the Koi Carp more area to both feed on and lay their eggs. This compounds the detrimental effects by breeding larger numbers of the Koi Carp. The higher water levels also allow the Carp to feed in more areas of the wetland further damaging the wetlands. The feeding actions of the Koi Carp cause sediment disturbance and erosion releasing quantities of nutrients into the waterways adding to nutrient loadings. In a study in 2003/2004, 85% of the carp entering Lake Waikare came up the fish passage from the Whangamarino Wetlands. Lake Waikare has been disseminated by huge carp numbers in recent years.

When the Weir resource consent was granted, concerns were expresses about adverse impacts. DOC and F&G were given strict monitoring conditions as a result. They have never complied with some of the monitoring conditions relating to the operation of this weir. Waikato Regional Council has taken no action to enforce the consent. Now local landowners are demanding Council review this consent under section 128 of the Resource management Act 1991 it is unacceptable that the requirements of the resource consent conditions imposed on both DOC and F&G. are not enforced with the same rigour that Council sees fit to impose on other consent holders.

A study carried out in November 1994 by a Kellogg’s Rural Leadership Scholar, reported the following outcomes from the weir to that time as:

While habitat for introduced wild fowl has increased this has already been at a cost.

1. Major bank slumping of the Maramarua River
2.
3. Serious siltation as a result of river bank slumping
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5. Degraded water quality from siltation
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7. Weir has prevented the river from cleaning itself causing putrefaction of water
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9. Once clear waterway is now weed-bound
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11. The weir has created flood plains upstream.
12.
At the time of the application there was much discussion with local residents worried about the spread of willows and pest fishes and the consequential effects on the native flora and fauna from both.

With the increase in the water levels the Koi Carp have been able to reach more feeding zones and with the increase in feed available and the expansion of the wetland area, the numbers have exploded over the past twenty plus years.

A recent study undertaken by the Primary Stakeholders Catchment Trust in the Whangamarino/Lake Waikare catchment has shown that the worst contaminants in this area are sediment and Phosphorous, Both of which are exacerbated greatly by the feeding actions of the Koi Carp.

The Koi Carp cause the erosion of the river banks by their feeding methods and this then allows the phosphorous to be released from the soil on contact with the water.

An extract from the original hearing taken from an opening submission on behalf of objectors by G D G Bailey Solicitor states:

4. Instead what we have is a simplistic and ingenuous approach by the applicants no doubt based on the best of intentions, but quite incapable of producing the restoration of the wetland in its natural state. The application has been modified quite considerably since it was first advertised, no doubt for the reasons of economy as much as anything else. Put simply, what the department and the Fish and game Council seeks to achieve is to dam up the water in what was once a wetland supporting various forms of birdlife, overlooking and ignoring everything that has happened since. The area that will be affected if this application is granted, is now infested by a particularly noxious form of fish, about which little is known, and whose eradication seems for the moment to be impossible; it is covered with thousands of willow trees that have emerged in recent years and is already showing significant effects from sedimentation arising out of the diversion of Lake Waikare into the Whangamarino wetland area. The proposed damming will prevent the silt from being carried downstream into the Waikato River as it is at the present time and the silt will therefore of necessity settle in the Whangamarino area. We therefore have a situation where sediment has been artificially diverted into the area, noxious fish have been released in the area and the area has been infested with willows. Merely building a dam is going to do nothing to restore what used to be there, nor to achieve the purposes set out in section 5 of the Resource management Act. It is not the natural resources of the area that would be sustained but these introduced elements.

Whilst it is always easy to look in hindsight and see clearly what has transpired, all of the above makes me ask if maybe the Chief Executive of Fish and Game, Mr. Martin Taylor, should maybe have thought about cleaning up his own back yard before trying to give flawed advice to others.

That old saying about glass houses comes to my mind.

Andy Loader
First Rock Consultancy Ltd

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