Heidi Clark

You can't hug a fish but they still need our love! We are looking to raise funds to help increase the spawning success of native New Zealand freshwater fish, many of which are now threatened. In typical Landcare style, this will be achieved by working hand in hand with the local community.



NZ Landcare Trust plans to help banded kokopu, giant kokopu and native short finned eel living in the Waikato River and Gibbons Creek, within the city of Hamilton. These fish are migratory and need to move up from the sea through larger rivers and into streams to spawn. However in many cases their habitats have been modified to the point where they are no longer able to reach their spawning sites and this is having a dramatic impact on reproduction and population numbers.

 
We would like to use funds raised here to install a structure made up of ramps and rocks placed at strategic locations on Gibbons Creek, to enable these little treasures to complete their journey up stream. The local community will play a key role especially younger people, where the focus will be on practical 'action on the ground.' Environmental education and monitoring will also be important to the work.

If you would like to discuss the project further please contact either:
Nardene Berry at [email protected]
or Heidi Clark at [email protected]

Funding will allow us to retrofit ramps and rocks in strategic places on Gibbons Creek which is currently a barrier for migratory native fish. Adding these structural elements will allow the fish to navigate their way up stream to essential spawning sites. We would also like to educate the local youth and community about native fish species especially long finned eel which are traditionally harvested for food - they are a species in decline, and as they are long-lived they often accumulate contaminants in their bodies making them a potential hazard to eat.

Finally, this funding would allow us to add a monitoring element so we have historical ‘before’ data prior to retrofitting where monitoring would be done again to see if there is any population improvement. Again we would try to encourage the local youth and community to join us in an educational monitoring event where we would go ‘spotlighting’ at night, as these fish are nocturnal, to ascertain the population of fish at these locations.

$2200 - Retrofitting Gibbons Creek to improve native fish habitat
$500 - Spotlighting event - youth and community education
$300 - Monitoring data collection after retrofitting to assess project impact and improvement
$390 - 13% fee to Pozible, Landcare Australia and transaction fees
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$3390 - Project Total

Stretch Goal: If successful we would like to retrofit a culvert (see image below) which enters the Waikato River at Normandy Avenue, Hamilton to enable eel passage. This will require an additional $2800.

Without your support this project won't get off the ground so please help.