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Whangaparāoa residents were distressed to discover hundreds of dead eels in a stream behind Whangaparāoa College, near the end of Rata Road, late last month.
A resident, who asked not to be named, discovered the eels on March 31 during their daily walk and reported the incident to Auckland Council.
Head of Sustainable Partnerships – Healthy Waters and Flood Resilience, Tom Mansell, said about 150 dead eels were removed from the stream by council contractors on April 2. A karakia was performed, and the eels were buried on the stream bank.
A pollution response officer inspected the site the same day but found no visible signs of contamination. Water quality testing was planned for later that day, but heavy rain made this impractical. A visual inspection of the stream catchment area was also carried out, with no clear source of pollution identified.
A follow-up visit by council pollution response staff on April 3 was again hindered by heavy rain and testing on April 4 found no indication that the stream was contaminated, Mansell said.
“If we receive any new reports of pollution or dead aquatic life at the site, we will investigate further,” he said.
The incident mirrors a similar event in February at Ōrākei Basin, where more than 200 eels were found dead.
Freshwater ecologist Dr Mike Joy of Victoria University told Hibiscus Matters the scale of the Whangaparāoa eel deaths strongly suggests a pollution event.
“Eels are incredibly tough, it takes serious pollution to kill them,” Dr Joy said.
He said the only way to confirm the source would have been through immediate water testing, as the pollution would have washed through after a few hours, even without the big rain events.
Dr Joy said eels were especially vulnerable in areas near major developments and it was the responsibility of both council and the Department of Conservation to better monitor consented activities, such as sediment runoff from construction or overflows from settling ponds.
“It’s not good enough for council to say they don’t know what it was – it’s not acceptable,” he said.
