The trick is getting what you really need
Dr Mike Scarsbrook has taken over from Jim Cooke at the helm of the National Centre for Water Resources. We wish Jim well in his new job with Beca in Wellington.
Mike Scarsbrook specialises in groundwater and stream invertebrate ecology, and state of the environment monitoring and reporting. For instance, he is currently working with Environment Southland and the West Coast Regional Council on the design of their state of the environment monitoring networks. 'With tight budgets, you can't afford to monitor for monitoring's sake. The trick is to produce the information you really need, driven by objectives of the regional plan,' says Mike.
Mike also leads much of NIWA's analysis of the state of our rivers, drawing on data from the National River Water Quality Network.
'With increasing competing demands on water quantity and quality, we're not only monitoring state and trends but also developing tools to help decision-makers get the balance right,' says Mike. 'The centre will continue to work with water resource stakeholders and help get science solutions out where they're needed.'
A staggering 4.4 million elvers were transferred at 12 dams around New Zealand in 2005-06. About 920 000 of those were longfins – the largest number ever recorded, and the first increase in longfins since accurate records began 10 years ago.
Contact Mike on 0-7-855 1775 or [email protected]