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Four of New Zealand’s five whitebait species are in decline, putting some urgency behind the work being done by the Whitebait Connection in Auckland.
Regional manager Sophie Tweddle will be the guest speaker at next week’s Warkworth Town Hall Talk on Thursday July 25 where she will provide an update on freshwater fish generally, but with a focus on whitebait, their lifestyle, locality and status.
“Inanga make up 90 per cent of the catch and they are declining quite quickly,” Sophie says. “There are a multitude of issues around their decline and I will cover some of these at the talk.”
The Mahurangi River is one of eight sites involved in the Auckland Inanga Spawning Project.
Monitoring has been underway for a couple of years at two sites and the talk will cover the results of the monitoring.
“In future, we will be looking at increasing spawning habitat. In rural areas, this will mean fencing along waterways to keep stock away from the river edges, and in urban areas it will mean education around not mowing or tramping along the riverbank.”
Sophie’s talk will also cover fish passages and their impact on the species.
Doors open at 5pm for a 5.30pm start. All welcome.
