Fisheries

The movements of many juvenile native fish are often hindered by barriers to fish passage such as dams, weirs, falls, tide gates, culverts, screens and high water velocities. The New Zealand Fish Passage Guidelines sets out recommended practice for the design of instream infrastructure to provide for fish passage.

The tools available for restoring native fish to streams depend on what is causing fish to decline.

Identifying the factors causing fish numbers to drop will allow you to determine which restoration tools you need to employ.

The giant kōkopu is a native whitebait species considered rare and vulnerable. NIWA is working with Mahurangi Technical Institute and environmental consultancy Boffa Miskell to test the feasibility of reintroducing giant kōkopu to Nukumea Stream, north of Auckland.

These guides are designed for rapid identification of freshwater flora and fauna for use in biomonitoring.

References, further reading, and links to useful websites.

The kōaro was once abundant in the Te Arawa lakes near Rotorua in New Zealand’s North Island. NIWA has assessed the viability of restoring this species in the region.

ESP3 is the main tool at NIWA for quantitative analysis of acoustic data.