South Canterbury school battles to protect endangered mudfish

Tuesday, 14 August 2018

 A South Canterbury school is continuing to do its best to fight the decline of a native mudfish species.

A new report shows serious concerns remain for the continued existence of the native Canterbury mudfish but the small St Andrews Primary School south of Timaru has engaged in a programme specifically aimed at restoring the species.

School principal Steve Fennessy said the school, with the help of a local trust, pupils and teachers, had planted and fenced off a stream south of the St Andrews Golf Course.

'It's a really authentic learning environment. The mudfish have bred in some quite unassuming areas. It's been really surprising how successful it has been,' he said.

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The Canterbury mudfish is on the critical list of the Department of Conservation's report on the status of New Zealand freshwater fishes that was released last week and revealed that of the 78 native freshwater species, at least 22 are critical, endangered or declining.

'The panel holds a particular concern for the Canterbury mudfish. Since the species was first classified as nationally critical, its highly fragmented range has further contracted within areas highly intensified for agriculture in Canterbury. Core and peripheral populations are now compromised by drought conditions, exacerbated by abstraction of irrigation water, continued agricultural development leading to a loss of wetland and meandering stream habitat and closure of stock water races,' the report says.

'Little has changed to benefit the Canterbury mudfish…and its persistence is now tenuous.'

Fennessy said such was the success of the project that they were looking for places to relocate.

'It's been a real effort from everyone over the last five years. We've had some students coming back to help even after they've left the school, which shows how much ownership they take of it,' he said.

DOC scientist Nicholas Dunn said there needs to be more coherent action between regional councils and district councils to ensure the habitat of mudfish remain.

'It has been a gradual loss of habitat that has led to the decline of the mudfish,' he said.

'The last 15 to 20 years have seen massive agricultural development in the Canterbury region and that's definitely exacerbated things.'

Dunn said part of the problem for DOC was the fact that mudfish were mostly found on private land.

'DOC doesn't have control of much of their habitats, so it's really down to district and regional councils to impose strong rules and regulations.'

Dunn said land owners and managers and communities could help Canterbury mudfish by protecting and restoring wetlands, and swampy streams, and using fish friendly management practices in drains and water-races where they are present.

'This will help to ensure the right environmental conditions and food resources are available to support the Canterbury mudfish population,' he said. 

Dunn said he was aware of the work that St Andrews school had been doing to protect the mudfish.

'About a decade or so ago, it was highlighted as one of the  four key sites (for mudfish) in the region, but since that time, two of those sites have been severely modified by agricultural expansion. This makes the work of the St Andrews school all the more important,' he said.

Dunn said the mudfish were spread across 24 ha ranging from the Ashley River to the South Bank of the Waitaki. 

'There are site-based protection measures, but there are also wider groundwater abstraction issues in the wider Canterbury catchment,' he said.