Fish Salvage
Hamish Stevens.

Drought conditions across the Central South Island region in 2008 caused a number of streams and rivers to dry, leaving fish stranded. The hardest hit was the Hakataramea River with other smaller streams such as Coopers Creek, Dobies Creek and the Balmacaan stream also requiring salvage. Many fish were relocated lower within their respective catchments where permanent water existed. However some of these fish sourced from didymo free waters were used to stock lakes such as Roundabout, Back Maori, Mystery and Hood. In total 1,436 fish were salvaged during the 2007/08 year.

CSI staff salvage karge trout from an irrigation race turned off for the
winter

A chinook salmon after taking a wrong turn, one of several returned to the
Waitaki River by Hamish Stevens after being rescued from a drying irrigation
race.

The Hakataramea River in flood on the 31st July 2008 at 90 cumecs. The first
significant flood since August 2000. During the fishing season the the river
hovered around the 1 cumec level.

The following table details waterways that were salvaged and the numbers of fish salvaged, along with their release sites (Table 1).

Download the table here

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