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Scientist warns whitebait under threat
Adult whitebait
Mon, 08 Sep 2008 8:08p.m.
Whitebait is one of our most mouth-watering delicacies. While it is pricey to buy, one of its great qualities is anyone with a net and a bit of spare time has a chance to catch it.
But just as the new season gets underway, a man who has studied the state of the country's water ways warns that if we continue to pollute our rivers, we may destroy the whitebait fishery for good.
Mike Joy is a Massey University environmental scientist and has been researching the state of rivers and estuaries where whitebait spawn.
He believes they are in such a bad state that we are in danger of losing the whitebait fishery for good.
"If we don't do something quickly we won't have these species anymore, we have to do something," Mr Joy warns. "If you look at the numbers of them around here, we just can't find them in the numbers we found them ten years ago. That's how quickly it's happening."
Whitebait need clean stretches of water to breed in, but that is increasingly becoming a rarity. Already two types of whitebait have now been officially declared as being endangered.
This river in the hills of the Manawatu is where at least four of the five whitebait species can still be found, but the problem is that many whitebait never make it into adulthood.
The rivers they have to swim through have been dammed, blocked, drained or polluted by the run-off from farms.
Even in the country's whitebait stronghold - the West Coast of the South Island - is in decline.
A Department of Conservation survey shows that two thirds of spawning areas have been damaged.
Mr Joy says we need to clean-up their spawning areas and the rivers, but that will take decades.
In the meantime, to take the pressure off the fishery he proposes something radical - banning the selling of whitebait.
He says he is speaking out because he believes something is precious is at stake - the future of whitebait and the very health of our rivers and waterways
Scientist warns whitebait under threat
Adult whitebait
Mon, 08 Sep 2008 8:08p.m.
Whitebait is one of our most mouth-watering delicacies. While it is pricey to buy, one of its great qualities is anyone with a net and a bit of spare time has a chance to catch it.
But just as the new season gets underway, a man who has studied the state of the country's water ways warns that if we continue to pollute our rivers, we may destroy the whitebait fishery for good.
Mike Joy is a Massey University environmental scientist and has been researching the state of rivers and estuaries where whitebait spawn.
He believes they are in such a bad state that we are in danger of losing the whitebait fishery for good.
"If we don't do something quickly we won't have these species anymore, we have to do something," Mr Joy warns. "If you look at the numbers of them around here, we just can't find them in the numbers we found them ten years ago. That's how quickly it's happening."
Whitebait need clean stretches of water to breed in, but that is increasingly becoming a rarity. Already two types of whitebait have now been officially declared as being endangered.
This river in the hills of the Manawatu is where at least four of the five whitebait species can still be found, but the problem is that many whitebait never make it into adulthood.
The rivers they have to swim through have been dammed, blocked, drained or polluted by the run-off from farms.
Even in the country's whitebait stronghold - the West Coast of the South Island - is in decline.
A Department of Conservation survey shows that two thirds of spawning areas have been damaged.
Mr Joy says we need to clean-up their spawning areas and the rivers, but that will take decades.
In the meantime, to take the pressure off the fishery he proposes something radical - banning the selling of whitebait.
He says he is speaking out because he believes something is precious is at stake - the future of whitebait and the very health of our rivers and waterways
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