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Fishing News index > July 2008
Salmon Monitoring
Staff have finished the aerial salmon spawning counts and good numbers of salmon were seen in all but the Hurunui catchment. A full report will be presented at the August council meeting.
The trap installed in Cora Lynn Stream was removed mid May due to staff concerns that the salmon holed up below the trap were showing strong avoidance of entering the trap. An aerial count was carried out three days after and a majority of the 150 odd salmon congregating below the trap had moved through and were digging redds. This is the largest spawning stream we have attempted to trap and due to the flow of water, staff had concerns about the possibility of trap avoidance here. Ideally traps should be positioned right at the top of a rapid but the swift current prevented this and the trap was erected 100m upstream. A full analysis of the trap will be presented with this years salmon management report for the next council meeting.
Lake Coleridge Salmon
Staff carried out spawning surveys of land locked salmon at Lake Coleridge in early May and a report will follow at the next Council meeting. As in previous years nearly all spawning was confined to the Hennah Stream, where reasonable numbers of salmon were observed spawning. A sample of last years smolts were collected by electric fishing for otolith analysis.
Recreational Salmon Harvest
Phone surveys are currently underway to estimate angler salmon harvest in the region. These will be summarised in the Salmon Management Report for the August Council Meeting.
National Gamebird Harvest Survey
Fortnightly phone surveys have been carried out on 120 gamebird licence holders since opening weekend to ascertain gamebird harvest by North Canterbury Hunters.
Fish Rescue
Staff, Councillor Barry Cleghorn, Rangers Trevor Keeley and Rick Van Der Zwet and volunteers carried out the annual fish salvage from the Amuri Irrigation Scheme and salvaged a total of over 650 brown trout ranging from yearlings to 6+ pound adults which were returned to the Waiau River. A small number of salmon were caught but counts were lower than in previous years.
Salmon Releases
Approximately 18,000 x 30g salmon smolts were transferred from Montrose to the Ryton Bay at Lake Coleridge in April. Mr Russ has been busy training Mr Dirk Barr to run Montrose and along with the help of many volunteers, they have managed to successfully fertilise up to 1,000,000 salmon eggs in the last six weeks, the majority of which will be used for ova planting, with 120,000 ova kept for Montrose and another 120,000 ova that will be hatched and transferred to the McKinnons Creek hatchery in the lower Rangitata River once they begin feeding.
Volunteers have begun the annual ova planting program.
Trout Releases
Around 30,000 rainbow trout fry continue to grow at Montrose. These are due for release into our high country lakes in Nov/Dec this year.
Resource Consents
Central Plains Water/Ashburton Community Water Trust
Fish & Game presented their case to the hearing between 13 – 20 May.
Two staff members presented two statements of evidence, with Davor Bejakovich focusing on fish screening, and Jason Holland on planning issues. A number of expert anglers including Trevor Isitt, Tony Matravers, Neil Goldie, Rick van der Zwet, Ian McCrory and Dirk Barr also presented background evidence on the fishery values of the Rakaia and Waimakariri. Staff are very grateful to those anglers for the considerable time and effort spent by them in writing evidence, and their willingness to take time away from their work to attend the hearing and answer questions from the Commissioners, at no cost to Fish & Game. Fish & Game also engaged external experts to present their evidence on recreational amenity (Mr Canham and Dr Hayes), ecology (Dr Hayes, Mr Hay, Dr Olsen and Dr Larned), hydrology (Mr De Joux) and geomorphology (Dr Tim Davies). These statements of evidence should all be available from the ECan website.
To minimise duplication and expenditure several external experts were shared with the Department of Conservation. We also wish to thank Robin Judkins and the Malvern Hills Protection Society for their kind donations, and Dr Davies for providing his expert evidence on a pro bono basis. While these measures went some way to reducing costs, it is fair to say that the CPW hearing is one of the most expensive that Fish & Game have ever been involved in. By the time this process is completed, well over $200,000 of licence fees will be spent. This cost is in no small part necessary to confront the disappointing level of information presented by the applicant, as evidenced by the considerable volume of new information that the applicant is being asked to provide as the hearing proceeds.
Fish & Game took four Ecan commissioners, for CPW hearing, for a flight to the Waimakariri River salmon spawning streams including a short stop up the Poulter River where the commissioners had a close up look at a number of salmon spawning. They were also flown up the Thompson River where many shoals of 50+ salmon were observed congregating in pools before spawning.
This does not complete Fish & Game’s involvement in this hearing. It is likely further evidence will be presented in response to relevant supplementary evidence from Central Plains Water. Fish & Game will also present a separate case regarding the proposed ACWT Rakaia south bank scheme, which is included in this hearing courtesy of the joint application between CPW and ACWT for the Rakaia take.
Fish Screens
Staff attended a presentation on the bioacoustics fish screens and recently installed RDR fish screen by leading specialist in the area organised by Ecan. Preliminary studies overseas show promising results but the effectiveness of the screen remains to be confirmed under local conditions.
Hurunui Water Conservation Order
On 9th June Jason received confirmation that the Order application meets the requirements of section 199 of the RMA. The Minister for the Environment will now appoint a Special Tribunal to hear and report on the application. This process may take several months. The Special Tribunal will then publicly notify the application in accordance with Section 204 of the RMA.
Davor Bejakovich will present fish screen criteria developed by Fish & Game at the three public meetings organised by Ecan as a follow up on the work by the Fish Screen Working Party. Meetings will be held on 16th June in Timaru, 19th June in Ashburton and 24th June in Amberley and will be chaired by Bryan Jenkins, Ecan CEO.
Lowland Stream Advocacy
Brett Painter, Lincoln Ventures finalised his review of Fish & Game historical Annual Reports looking for the data on the Selwyn River and the Lake Ellesmere catchment. He met with Davor and Jason to present data gathered. Staff reviewed Brett’s data and his conclusions will be presented at the SWALG meeting on 13th June 2008.
Junior Fisheries
Volunteers transferred approximately 300 x 250g salmon which were surplus broodstock from Silverstream to the Groynes. Approximately 40 Rainbow trout were released at the recently constructed Delamain subdivision waterway, as organised by Councillor Goom. Children from nearby Gilberthorpes School attended.
Angler & Hunter Competitions
The goose shooting competition which has been running for the last year has come to an end with a successful sporting clay shoot followed by the prize giving. Bernie Hayman from the Central South island Region won 1st prize for the most geese shot at 705 geese. 5,030 pairs of geese legs geese were handed in by 118 hunters for the competition which is up considerably from last seasons and in conjunction with the culls on Ellesmere and Bromley last Christmas, this should hopefully have brought numbers down to within our goose management plan targets.
Club Relations
Staff and Chairman Mr Clements attended the Salmon Anglers Association AGM where they gave short presentations and answered questions.
Angler & Hunter Relations
Staff have finished the weekly river/fishing reports for the season and these will commence again in November.
Staff gave a lecture on F&G objectives, salmon and trout management in our region to 25 science students from the University of Minnesota followed by a field trip and BBQ at Montrose. The visit was highly successful and the tour leader Prof Dr Stephen Carlson highly praised the content and quality of the lecture and field trip that followed. Special thanks to Mr Russ and his team of volunteers who impressed US students with their passion, level of professional knowledge and hospitality. They voted day out with F&G s\as the highlight of their stay in New Zealand to date.
Statutory Liaison
Staff and Environment Canterbury Enforcement Officer Marsh investigated cattle in salmon spawning streams and are continuing to investigate options for best remedying this ongoing problem.
Staff met with Greg Byrnes and Darren Haffenden, Ecan, to further discussions of the angler and hunter access to the Waimakariri Regional Park.
Staff attended a meeting on the proposed National Environmental Standards for Ecological Flows organised jointly by MfE and MAF. The proposed standards are not likely to help current water issues in Canterbury but will go a long way in addressing issues of the waterways in the regions where there are no Regional plans or other legal documents addressing issues of minimal flow setting.
Staff, rangers and Mr Russ organised a farewell BBQ at the Silverstream Hatchery for Selwyn Hawke who retires after 40+ years service
Media Liaison
Staff gave interviews to The Press and a number of local newspapers on the results of the duck shooting opening weekend.
Ranging
An opening day compliance operation checked hunters on ten private ponds, previously identified from a fixed wing survey. No offences except failure to produce licence were detected. Other Rangers were organised at the Hororata/Selwyn area, Lake Ellesmere and the lower Waimakariri where one no licence offence was detected.
Rangers were organised for the two day Pheasant season. Very few cock pheasant appear to have fallen to the guns of a modest number of hunters encountered.
Ranger Training
A well attended pre-season training meeting was held, where items relating to Ranger efficiency and effectiveness were discussed, along with a debrief of the previous fishing season and any outstanding issues that arose from it.
National Liaison
Steve Terry attended a Fish & Game conference in Wellington to discuss future ideas and strategies for a variety of media topics.
Staff Training
Brian Ross celebrated 30 years of service with the Acclimatisation Society and Fish and Game with Councillors, staff and Rangers on the special session of the Council. We take this opportunity to thank Brian once more for his contribution to our team and the organisation.
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