Freshwater Update 75, November 2017

Freshwater Update 75 brings you the latest information from our Freshwater & Estuaries Centre, with a focus on NIWA’s role in two of the National Science Challenges, a position paper on improved monitoring and reporting on ‘swimmability’ of freshwaters and release of the draft national standard for discrete water quality, seagrass rehabilitation and new science on inanga.

Biological Heritage and NIWA’s role

NIWA is a key contributor to the National Science Challenge on Biological Heritage hosted by Landcare Research. The challenge is to “Reverse the decline of New Zealand’s biological heritage, through a national partnership to deliver a step change in research innovation, globally leading technologies and community and sector action” and covers both terrestrial and freshwater environments.

Helping councils voice a position on improving monitoring and reporting of ‘swimmability’ in New Zealand

New Zealand’s rivers, lakes and coastal waters are highly valued for swimming and other contact recreation activities. To satisfy both public health and state of the environment objectives, monitoring and reporting of the suitability of these waters for recreation must be meaningful and robust.

New science on inanga

The inward migrations of inanga (Galaxias maculatus) post-larvae back to freshwaters occur primarily in late winter and spring time where they are targeted as part of the whitebait fishery. In this study, we shed light on the relationships between growth attained in pelagic and freshwater environments.