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Michelle Viljoen and Keelan Viljoen spot eels on the Matakana River jetty. Photo, Stephen Farrell.
Richard Didsbury wants to protect New Zealand’s freshwater eels.
Finding a jetty on the Matakana River covered in blood has prompted the owner to put up signs prohibiting fishing, as well as information signage on New Zealand’s freshwater eels.
The jetty is located behind the Matakana Village Farmer’s Market and the signs were erected by market owner Richard Didsbury.
Mr Didsbury says one of the distressing things about fishing for eels in the river is that often the eels are never eaten and are killed just for fun.
“We have had cases where people hooked 10 eels and just hung them up on the bandstand and walked away,” he says. “What a terrible waste of a resource.”
Mr Didsbury says the jetty used to be an industrial site and the river was polluted indiscriminately, making it inhospitable for eels.
But today, the Matakana community is concerned to clean up its waterways and bring the native eels back again.
The erection of the signs is designed to encourage this trend, and Mr Didsbury says the move has the support of Auckland Council and the Department of Conservation.
The signs explain that the New Zealand longfin eel is probably the largest in the world and sometimes lives for 80 years. Females can reach up to two metres in length and weigh up to 40kg.
They swim for five to six months to tropical Pacific waters, possibly near Tonga, where they spawn.
Their eggs hatch into leaf-shaped larvae that float back to New Zealand on ocean currents.
Mr Didsbury says the eels are a great attraction for visitors to the market, and sometimes 20 or 30 eels can be seen from the jetty.
