Freshwater news

News and media releases related to our freshwater work.

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Scientists study eels by moonlight

Media Release
1 August 2019
Under the light of the moon where the river meets the sea, NIWA researchers are planning to catch tiny fish that are all but invisible to the naked eye.

Come jump in a lake with NIWA

Media Release
5 June 2019
Visitors to NIWA’s stand at this year’s Fieldays are invited to go diving into the Rotorua lakes—without having to get wet.

Scientists hoping to solve great eel mystery

Media Release
16 May 2019
NIWA freshwater scientists are pinning their hopes of solving an age-old mystery on 10 female longfin eels who are about to begin an epic journey to their spawning grounds somewhere in the Pacific Ocean.

NIWA mapping Whakatipu lake floor

Media Release
8 May 2019
NIWA researchers are out on Lake Whakatipu for the next week mapping the lake floor for the first time.

Freshwater fish swim their all for science

Media Release
26 March 2019
In a secret training location on the outskirts of Hamilton, a squad of whitebait is being put through its paces by fish scientists.

Scientist collects rubbish to rid rivers of plastics

Feature story
16 January 2019
It may be rubbish to everyone else, but to Amanda Valois each little scrap of plastic on a river bank or in a waterway tells a valuable story.

The eel earbone detective

Feature story
9 January 2019
As a young child growing up on an Irish farm, one of Eimear Egan’s chores was to regularly clean out the well from where her family drew its drinking water. In the well lived a large eel that, no matter how many times it was shifted, just kept coming back.

NIWA scientist throws light on the Red Zone

Feature story
21 December 2018
Christchurch’s Red Zone is to be the focal point of a scientific experiment involving street lights and insects over summer. 

Scientific muscle meets freshwater mussels

Feature story
19 December 2018
NIWA scientists have made an important breakthrough in the battle to save New Zealand’s freshwater mussels.

Migratory fish get helping hand

Feature story
3 September 2018
Humans don't always make it easy on fish to get where they are going. New Zealand's first national set of Fish Passage Guidelines – co-developed by NIWA - is expected to help.

Community project inspires scientists

Media Release
6 August 2018
A project to restore a stream catchment in Kaikōura—damaged in the 2016 earthquake—is being described as inspirational by NIWA scientists.

From small beginnings a valuable collection grows

Media Release
24 July 2018
Cathy Kilroy is quick to admit she’s a person who doesn’t like throwing anything away.

Water sensitive urban design: a concrete case

Feature story
27 June 2018
The hard concrete surfaces that characterise New Zealand towns and cities are barely likely to register as a problem with most people. But they're never far from the minds of our urban water researchers.

Underwater footage shows exceptional clarity of Te Waikoropupū Springs

Media Release
25 May 2018
On the bottom of New Zealand’s largest freshwater springs is an underwater garden of vivid green, pinks and inky blues.

Summer Series 2017 - Citizen scientists take on Hutt River

Feature story
8 January 2018
A group of volunteers who love the Hutt River are helping to care for it over summer.

Proud of your plants? Take the survey

Media Release
9 October 2017

A new online survey is forming the basis of the National Riparian Restoration Database, which will help scientists to improve understanding of how riparian buffers benefit waterways.

Take the survey

Hapū joins forces with NIWA in tuna research

Feature story
20 June 2017
Local hapū and NIWA are working together to find out more about juvenile freshwater eels or tuna in streams connecting to the Wairua River in the Wairoa catchment in Northland.

Q&A: Another way to measure river health

Feature story
20 June 2017
There’s another way of measuring the health of rivers – the health of invertebrate populations that need them, says John Quinn, NIWA Chief Scientist, Freshwater and Estuaries.

Raising the bar for swimmable rivers

Feature story
20 June 2017
The government has released the ‘Clean Water’ package of proposed reforms, aimed at making more of our rivers swimmable. But how is ‘swimmable’ to be measured, and do these measures stack up?

Dairy turns the corner

Feature story
11 June 2017
NIWA's Freshwater and Estuaries Chief Scientist Dr John Quinn believes the dairy industry has been responsive in the tools it has adopted to reduce its impact on waterways.

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