Sustainable wild whitebait fishery: Comparative assessment of īnanga spawning at the Punakaiki River Technical Report
- Author
- Orchard S.
- Year
- 2020
- Publisher / Organisation
- Waterlink
- Pages
- 18
- Summary
- Report prepared for the Department of Conservation A census survey of īnanga spawning activity was completed for the Punakaiki River during the 2020 summer. The survey concentrated on the known spawning location upstream of the State Highway road bridge and was designed to inform the implementation of channel enhancement works under the Sustainable Wild Whitebait Fishery (SWWF) project facilitated by the Department of Conservation. The survey period (Feb-May inclusive) also enabled comparison with a similar census survey completed in 2016. Spawning sites were found at many of the same locations recorded in 2016. All of the known sites are located within a spring-fed tributary network and associated riparian wetland system on the true left of the Punakaiki River floodplain, as was the case in 2016. Within this relatively compact area, a total of 19 discrete spawning sites were recorded in the 2020, and 14 sites in 2016. Many of these sites are located in close proximity to others, often separated by only small stretches of less favourable vegetation. Field observations showed these similarities are associated with a relatively stable period in which geomorphology and vegetation changes have been relatively minor in this part of the catchment, and several micro-terrain features have supported spawning in both years.