Tuesday 26 March 2019

Whitebait spawning in Lyell Creek Waikōau

Nice article in the Kaikōura Star on our surpise finding of whitebait spawning sites in downstown Kaikōura.

The spawning habitat in this area has benefitted from riparian restoration work in Lyell Creek / Waikōau since the earthquakes.

Monday 25 March 2019

Whitebait spawning surveys in Kaikōura coastal rivers

This summer we've been working
to fill a knowledge gap about whitebait in streams and rivers along the Kaikōura coast. Knowing where they are is useful for recovery planning in the same areas post-earthquake as well as for restoration projects in local waterways.

Our survey programme started with fish trapping to find out which species were living in which rivers, after which we selected waterways that were suspected to have good īnanga populations. They included seven catchments close to Kaikōura (Oaro, Kahutara, Lyell / Waikōau, Middle, Swan, Harnetts and Blue Duck) as well as other sites in Marlborough. After four months of surveying we discovered at least one spawning event in all of these streams and rivers and were able to map the spawning locations including some large sites!

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