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Chapter 1: What mystery is unfolding in New Zealand's waterways?
A grim mystery is unfolding in our waterways. Thousands of eels, yes, those dark snake-like guardians of our lakes and rivers, have been washing up dead across New Zealand. And the reason for it isn't always clear. And investigations underway after hundreds of eels were found dead in a stream in northern Hawke's Bay. Thousands of eels left high and dry.
To have to see those eels perish the way they did was not a very nice experience at all. It was pretty shit to watch. Testing is being done to work out what caused the deaths of hundreds of eels in the Waiatai stream about 10 minutes north of Wairoa. Thousands of dead eels have washed up on a beach in Canterbury at the coastal settlement of Birdlings Flat.
Iwi volunteers have saved about 3,000 eels from a dried-up lake bed in coastal Manawatu. However, hundreds of dead eels remain in the mud at Pukipuki Lagoon between Himatangi and Tangimoana. Hi, I'm Amanda Gillies and today on The Detail, what is causing thousands of eels to wash up dead across the country? What does it mean for our eel populations? Can it be prevented? And how are iwi reacting?
Because eels are considered a taonga and their unexpected and unnatural deaths cut deep. It's terrible. It's like going to a funeral. It's like finding out your best friend's died, your family, your family member.
It's a whole ecological system. It's annihilated. 9k of creek. I actually sat on the bridge and cried. That's... It brings tears to your eyes. It's just guttering.
That was the heartbreaking reaction after a mass ill death in Wairua in January this year. But the most recent event was just this month in a dried-up lake bed in coastal Manawatu. Regional Council staff discovered what had happened last week when they were in the area moving equipment. It's not yet known what's caused the lake to dry out.
This for me is gutting. And for those that have been raised out here and brought up out here and witnessed being a part of the lake, this is tragedy, an absolute tragedy.
So today I talked to RNZ Field journalist Jimmy Allingham, who has been covering those devastating scenes and investigations in Manawatu.
This one remains a mystery. It could be something natural or it could be something to do with land use or a combination of both. At this point, we simply don't know. So that's the mystery at the moment of the Pukipuki Lagoon.
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Chapter 2: What caused the mass deaths of eels in the Manawatū lagoon?
But some representatives of local iwi I spoke to seem to think it potentially could be something to do with the changing land use around the lake. There's now farmland and forestry there. There were some drains. coming out of it as well.
Confusing as well is I found online an old report completed for the Department of Conservation about 10 years ago, and that was just looking at the levels of waterways in the region. And that actually made note of the fact that in the report, author's words, Pukipuki Lagoon, does dry out once every decade or so.
But it wasn't completely clear what caused that or if it completely dried out as at this time or he was just referring to perhaps lower water levels. So it remains a mystery as to what has caused it this time and people are looking into it and we should know soon.
Hopefully. And you're saying iwi are there. How have they responded? Because, you know, eels or tuna are considered a taonga for them, isn't it?
Completely a taonga. And this time of year too, or at least when it was discovered towards the beginning of April, it's a special time for eels too because traditionally they go off to the Pacific Ocean and spawn. And many of these eels, we have to remember that they live decades.
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Chapter 3: How are local iwi responding to the dying eels crisis?
I think longfin eels can live up to 100 years. And their average lifespan is something like 30 to 50 years. It's a bit less for short, thin eels. But locally, we have been out in force. So there's Mahapu or Himatangi is the nearest hapu to this. And that consists of... people from three iwi groups and after Horizon has discovered what had happened they really mobilised.
I think there were several dozen volunteers at the lake for that first weekend rescuing as many eels as they could and putting them in buckets of water and taking them to nearby waterways and even when I visited A couple of days later, there were still a dozen or so iwi volunteers there.
And iwi are really leading the rescue operations and the regional council and DOCA, they're supporting them because it is a taonga species to them. And many of them, I spoke to one man called Justin Tamihana, and he has customary fishing rights for the lake and other waterways. And he said he was just devastated. He talked about the multi-generational loss of eels.
And that's a factor here because even if you... You rescue eels. Will this population be restored here or not? These are all the things we don't know at the moment.
Here's a snippet of Jimmy's interviews with devastated local iwi.
Heartbreaking is probably the word I want to use to start with. Why did it get to this stage? I mean, we're standing beside new water monitoring equipment. What's the purpose of it and did it do what it is expected to do? What's happening with the peripheral land? Has there been any modification or changes to the land use that have added more complications here.
To come out here to see the number of dead tuna sitting on the surface and to see what was once a very lush, plentiful lagoon sitting here dry as a bone. It's devastating to see just the impact that it's had upon the species that have put this place home for a very, very long time. From here we just want to get the facts. We've got a whole bunch of technicians out here, ecologists,
We want to get some LIDAR scans, we want to just find out all the information we can, get all the data and from here we'll work with the Department of Conservation, Horizons and the EWIG to make sure there is an independent investigation so we can understand what's happening and ultimately prevent it from ever happening again.
Oh my God.
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Chapter 4: What investigations are being conducted regarding the eel deaths?
And what about overall for the eel populations? Because I understand, Jimmy, they are under a bit of pressure. They're sort of slow to recover. Do we know it's going to have any impact on the eel populations for your hood?
I think it's just too soon to know. And at the moment, we don't have a precise count, say, of how many have died. We know that there were 3,000 rescued, about 3,000, the iwi say, but we don't know how many have died there. And also, as you alluded to before, we don't know how many of those 3,000 that were rescued have survived.
But that surely will be something that will be looked at and potentially restarting the zeal population in Pukipuki Lagoon. How easy is that? Will that happen? Do they simply return when the water comes back? Because it has rained now since this dry lake bed was found. It's actually rained a lot for the past two weeks.
And just checking in with council officials, they tell me that there's now 300 to 400 mils of water. So the lake is slowly filling up again and the surrounding drains are. So potentially the area may repopulate itself. I think it's just too early at this stage to know.
What about the council and regulators? Jimmy, have they sort of been asked the tough questions about the water management there?
Iwi have certainly been asking those tough questions. I spoke to Pahia Turia, who's the chairman of the local runanga, and he said he just doesn't accept that this is a natural event. He thinks it has to be something to do with the land use and the changes in that surrounding the lagoon. And Horizons Regional Council says, well, the independent investigation that it's really, really involved.
And we'll look at all of these factors to see and, in their words, make sure that this is prevented from occurring again.
Because that's what everyone wants to know is prevention. How do they ensure that this doesn't happen again?
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Chapter 5: How significant are eels to New Zealand's ecosystem?
Exactly right. I mean, it's too early for them really to say anything while their investigation is still ongoing.
But going back to that report that I found from Doc, if we know and if there is some sort of pattern to when the lake dries out, that that might help inform decisions because the information that is readily available online that I found shows that the water level in that lake does go up and down. In a relatively, at least from the information I read, a relatively predictable pattern.
But of course, if there's other factors at play too, that predictable pattern may have changed. And that report that I found is almost a decade old now.
Big one, obviously, at the moment is climate change and climate extremes. Do we know if recent droughts or storms are sort of maybe playing a role in these sorts of events?
Well, it could do. And the weather pattern in Manawatu over summer has been quite unusual, to say the least. It was a very, very wet summer. And into February, there were the storms that came through then, so it was quite wet. Then all of a sudden in March, it just dried out.
There was very little rain at all, and the temperatures went up, the sort of temperatures you might have previously seen over those high summer months. So potentially it has played a part there. And if what Horizons officials are saying is true, that other waterways have lower levels of water, and that's what their monitoring indicates, potentially that could have played a part in this.
For me, eels are something that sort of unsettles me. When I get into waterways, whether it's lakes or rivers, and they're sort of these little slimy buggers, you know, slithering around your feet and I sort of get a bit unsettled. Why, you know, for people listening saying, oh, they're just dirty little eels. Why does it matter? Why does this matter, Jimmy?
Well, they are amazing creatures, aren't they? And they are a sacred species to Māori. But there's still a lot of mystery about them too, isn't it? We don't actually know exactly where they spawn in the Pacific Ocean. I think we understand that it's somewhere near Tonga. But there's that mystery to it and the fact that they live so long.
Females might live up to 90 or 100 and then go and spawn, after which they die. But the larvae sort of turns into a small eel and it starts out again. Their lifespan has to be something that fascinates us because you think of fish and most creatures in the sea and you just think they only live a few years, but these things can outlast us, can't they? And they're quite amazing.
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