Lifeline for our Longfin Eels

Guest Bloggers: Mike Joy, a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Science at Massey University & Masters student Amber McEwan

Of all our threatened endemic iconic species there is only one that almost all New Zealanders have come in contact with.  Our other threatened species are on offshore islands or in very hard to access places, seen only by a select few.  But this one, can, or at least could until very recently be found literally in many people’s back yards or within walking distance, it was accessible to almost everyone. This beautiful and enigmatic natural treasure is under immediate threat from a very small group of people with the active collusion of a government department. 

Read more »

Our rivers aren’t waste removal systems

Freshwater quality in New Zealand has reached crisis point. 

Decades of treating our rivers as convenient waste removal systems is now coming back to haunt us. 

New Zealand lakes, rivers and streams have experienced and continue to experience exponential increases in pressure from farming intensification, residential subdivision, wastewater discharges, water abstraction, erosion from bad land management and a multitude of other impacts.

Read more »