Connectivity assessment for migratory fish in the Middle Creek catchment, Kaikōura coast Technical Report
- Author
- Orchard, S.
- Year
- 2021
- Publisher / Organisation
- Waterlink
- Pages
- 12
- Summary
- Prepared for Environment Canterbury The Environment Canterbury (ECan) Regional Fish Habitat initiative provides a coordinated regionwide approach to identifying, prioritising and remediating fish habitat. The regional initiative supports the goals of the Canterbury Water Management Strategy, Canterbury Regional Policy Statement, and Canterbury Land and Water Regional Plan (Environment Canterbury 2013, 2017). Identifying opportunities for habitat improvement will help to achieve targets for improving the health and integrity of streams and rivers in the region. Within this context, there is a particular need to assess barriers to fish passage which is important consideration for the management of migratory fish (Franklin et al. 2018). This contributes to the conservation of species that rely on waterway connectivity for completion of their life cycle. These species include the five diadromous galaxiids that contribute to New Zealand’s whitebait fishery which migrate from the sea as post-larval ‘whitebait’in search of suitable freshwater habitats upstream (McDowall 1984).