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Ashley River/Rakahuri: Minimum Flow Assessment for Ashley Gorge

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Ashley River/Rakahuri: Minimum Flow Assessment for Ashley Gorge WATER WAYS CONSULTING LTD ASHLEY RIVER/RAKAHURI: MINIMUM FLOW ASSESSMENT FOR ASHLEY GORGE PREPARED FOR: ENVIRONMENT CANTERBURY DATE: APRIL 2017 REPORT NUMBER: 37-2017A Water Ways Consulting Ltd Ashley River/Rakahuri minimum flow assessment Table of Contents 1 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Flow Setting Options ............................................................................................................... 1 2 Aquatic Habitat assessment ................................................................................................................. 3 3 Habitat Assessment Results ................................................................................................................. 5 3.1 General Habitat Observations................................................................................................. 5 3.2 Habitat Availability Variation with Changing Flow .................................................................. 7 3.3 Fish Passage .......................................................................................................................... 10 3.4 Algal growth .......................................................................................................................... 12 3.5 Summary of Habitat Availability ........................................................................................... 13 4 Recommendations for Minimum flow Settting ................................................................................. 14 4.1 SEFA Model ........................................................................................................................... 14 4.1.1 Taxa to consider for minimum flow recommendations ............................................... 14 4.1.2 Bluegill bully and torrentfish ......................................................................................... 15 4.1.3 Brown trout ................................................................................................................... 15 4.1.4 Chinook salmon ............................................................................................................. 15 4.1.5 Macroinvertebrates ...................................................................................................... 15 4.1.6 Fish passage .................................................................................................................. 15 4.1.7 Algal growth .................................................................................................................. 15 4.1.8 Downstream flow and freshes ...................................................................................... 16 5 Conclusions ........................................................................................................................................ 16 6 References ......................................................................................................................................... 17 Appendix A. Photographs of cross sections ......................................................................................... 17 Appendix B. New Zealand Freshwater Fish Database Summary data for Ashley River/Rakahuri ....... 25 Appendix C Habitat preference curves ................................................................................................ 26 Appendix D Area Weighted Suitability model data ............................................................................. 36 LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Summary information for cross sections. ................................................................................. 5 Table 2: Summary habitat model data showing flows that provides maximum habitat and the percentage of that habitat present at 7dMALF. ................................................................................... 13 i Water Ways Consulting Ltd Ashley River/Rakahuri minimum flow assessment LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: From the top upland bully, torrentfish, Canterbury galaxias and brown trout. ...................... 2 Figure 2: Black fronted tern feeding in shallow riffle water. .................................................................. 3 Figure 3: Survey reach of the Ashley River ............................................................................................. 3 Figure 4: Modelled habitat availability for Canterbury galaxias, upland bully, bluegill bully and torrentfish. .............................................................................................................................................. 7 Figure 5: Modelled habitat availability for longfin and shortfin eels. ..................................................... 8 Figure 6: Modelled habitat availability for brown trout life history stages. ........................................... 8 Figure 7: Modelled habitat availability for Chinook salmon life history stages. ..................................... 9 Figure 8: Modelled habitat availability for macroinvertebrates, including general invertebrate prey and selected common invertebrates. ..................................................................................................... 9 Figure 9: Modelled habitat availability for wrybill and black fronted terns. ........................................ 10 Figure 10: Modelled fish passage in the study reach for 10 cm deep water (top), 20 cm deep water (middle) and 30 cm deep water (bottom) all with passage pathways with water velocities less than 1.25 m/s. ............................................................................................................................................... 12 Figure 11: Modelled habitat availability for short and long filamentous algae. ................................... 12 ii Water Ways Consulting Ltd Ashley River/Rakahuri minimum flow assessment 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background The Ashley River/Rakahuri rises in the Puketeraki and Pancake ranges of north western Canterbury. These ranges are foothill areas of the Southern Alps and do not form part of the main divide of the South Island. From its headwaters the Ashley River/Rakahuri flows through Lees Valley and then downstream through the 12 km long Ashley Gorge. Downstream of the Ashley Gorge the river flows across the Canterbury Plains and receives inflows from the Glentui, Garry, Okutu and Makerikeri Rivers. It flows just to the north of Rangiora before flowing out to sea via the Ashley River/Rakhuri hapua. The lower reaches of the river have a number of spring-fed tributaries including Saltwater Creek on the northern bank and Waikuku Stream and Taranaki Creek on the southern bank. Mosely (2001) notes that the Ashley River/Rakahuri loses surface water to ground water as it crosses the Canterbury Plains. This loss of water leads to a drying reach between the Okuku River confluence and State Highway 1 (SH1) when the flow at the Ashley Gorge drop below 2.5 m3/s. The river lies within the Waimakariri Canterbury Water Management Strategy (CWMS) area and currently the Zone Committee is assessing water management options for the Ashley River/Rakhuri catchment. This work includes the setting of minimum flows for the streams in the catchment including the Ashley River/Rakahuri. 1.2 Flow Setting Options When considering flow options for rivers a number of issues and options can be considered, these include: Providing habitat for desired fish and invertebrates; Maintaining fish passage; Providing spawning habitat; Providing breeding and feeding habitat for wading birds; and Reducing the potential for undesirable algal blooms and drying reaches. In the Ashley River/Rakahuri there are recreational fisheries for trout (Figure 1) and Chinook salmon, customary fisheries for tuna (eels) and whitebait, and the river supports six species of At Risk Declining (Goodman et al 2014) fish species including, Canterbury galaxias, bluegill bully, torrentfish, and longfin eel in or near to the study reach. Additional native fish such common, giant and upland bullys are also present in the river. A key consideration, aside from habitat availability, for bluegill, common and giant bully, torrentfish, short and longfin eels and Chinook salmon is fish passage to and from the sea for these species. The Ashley River is also breeding habitat for a range of threatened braided river birds including wrybill and banded dotterel (Hughey 1998) and black fronted terns (Figure 2) and black-billed gulls. These bird species are present nesting along the river generally from August to late December each year. 1 Water Ways Consulting Ltd Ashley River/Rakahuri minimum flow assessment Figure 1: From the top upland bully, torrentfish, Canterbury galaxias and brown trout. 2 Water Ways Consulting Ltd Ashley River/Rakahuri minimum flow assessment Figure 2: Black fronted tern feeding in shallow riffle water. 2 AQUATIC HABITAT ASSESSMENT An initial field survey of the Ashley River/Rakahuri was undertaken on the 5 January 2017 along a 1.8 km reach of the river upstream and downstream of the Ashley Gorge Road bridge (Figure 3). The survey assessed the distribution and abundance of habitat units, riffle, run and pools and the braided nature of the river along this reach. Figure 3: Survey reach of the Ashley River On the 11 January 2017 fifteen
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