Barriers stopping fish in Glenside

Barriers in the Porirua Stream in Glenside are stopping anga (a whitebait species) swimming upstream to grow into adult fish.

nanga spawn at the river mouth and estuary and swim upstream to reach a better habitat.

One of the barriers is a ford.

Joshua Forrest, Biodiversity Ranger - Fish Passage, Greater Wellington Regional Council, identified there are no fish in the Glenside

Reserve because of the ford. nanga are found swimming around at the bottom of the ford, but they cannot cross the ford and migrate upstream.

There are fish upstream in Seton Nossitor Park, however these were likely an isolated pocket of fish, not integrated with the lower river system, Joshua said.

The following rare and endangered fish are in the Glenside-Stebbings Valley river catchment: Giant k opu,long fin eel,red fin bully, ura/fresh water crayfish andK kahi/freshwater mussel.

The freshwater mussel is the only known population in the Porirua catchment and is found in the Stebbings Steam above Stebbings Dam.

One way baby mussel migrate upstream is attaching themselves to fish, and they could re-establish in the Glenside Reserve branch of the stream if the fish barriers were removed. prescription fee for people holding Community Service Cards and Gold cards. It needs to be completely done away with. I will look to vote for the ACT party, as National’s likely choice of a coalition partner, but only if they make retaining the zero prescription fees a condition of working with National.

Joshua identified that one of the weirs in the stream has bed material accumulating on it providing excellent fish passage and potential refuge.

He said the two barriers associated with thisstructure are easy fixes and could be modified for fish early in the next financial year.

The ford is problematic as its removal will affect the water flow. Itrequires further study for a fish barrier solution.

I would be happy to put my name to this letter, however one of my employment conditions is that I am not allowed to make any public statements.

Concerned