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Electrofishing Survey of the Fish Community in the Whangamarino Wetland CBER Contract Report 67 Client Report Prepared For

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Electrofishing Survey of the Fish Community in the Whangamarino Wetland CBER Contract Report 67 Client Report Prepared For Electrofishing survey of the fish community in the Whangamarino Wetland CBER Contract Report 67 Client report prepared for Department of Conservation by Brendan J. Hicks Jeroen Brijs Dudley G. Bell Warrick Powrie Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research Department of Biological Sciences School of Science and Engineering The University of Waikato Private Bag 3105 Hamilton, New Zealand 14 July 2008 Email: [email protected] i 1 Contents 2 Contents ............................................................................................................................... i 3 List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... i 4 List of Figures ...................................................................................................................... i 5 List of Appendices .............................................................................................................. ii 6 Executive summary ............................................................................................................. 1 7 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 2 8 2. Methods ........................................................................................................................... 3 9 2.1 Boat electrofishing .............................................................................................. 3 10 2.2 Backpack electrofishing ...................................................................................... 4 11 3. Results ............................................................................................................................. 7 12 3.1 Boat electrofishing .............................................................................................. 7 13 3.2 Backpack electrofishing .................................................................................... 16 14 4. Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 19 15 5. Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................... 22 16 6. References ..................................................................................................................... 23 17 7. Appendices………………………………………………………………………….…24 18 List of Tables 19 Table 1. Locations of sites fished with electric fishing boat between 20-23 August 2007 20 and 3-6 March in the Whangamarino wetland. – represents that site was not fished, 21 NZMG = New Zealand Map Grid. ............................................................................. 5 22 Table 2. Locations of tributaries flowing into the Whangamarino wetland system fished 23 by backpack electrofishing between 20-23 August 2007. .......................................... 5 24 Table 3. Physical conditions in the Whangamarino Wetland at the fishing sites between 25 20 and 23 August 2007. .............................................................................................. 8 26 Table 4. Physical conditions in the Whangamarino Wetland at the fishing sites between 3 27 and 6 March 2008. – signifies that the site was not accessible for fishing. ................ 9 28 Table 5. Abundance of introduced and native fish species caught in the Whangamarino 29 wetland between 20-23 August 2007 and 3-6 March 2008. Means calculated from 30 five 10-minute boat-electrofishing passes. – represents site not fished. ................... 12 31 Table 6. Sites and physical conditions in tributaries flowing into the Whangamarino 32 Wetland on 24 August and 3 September 2007. ......................................................... 18 33 Table 7. Density of fish caught in tributaries flowing into the Whangamarino Wetland on 34 24 August and 3 September 2007. ............................................................................ 18 35 Table 8. Biomass per unit area of the most abundant fish species caught in tributaries 36 flowing into Whangamarino Wetland on 24 August and 3 September 2007. .......... 19 37 38 List of Figures 39 Figure 1. Sites fished in the Whangamarino wetland between 20-23 August 2007 and 3-6 40 March 2008. Source: Freshwater Fish Database Assistant (Jowett 2005). Site codes 41 correspond to the GPS points in Table 1 and 2. * sites only fished between 20-23 42 August 2007. ............................................................................................................... 6 ii 43 Figure 2. The main channel of the Whangamarino River below the weir in August 2007 44 (left) and March 2008 (right). Photos: Brendan Hicks (left) and Michael Lake 45 (right). ....................................................................................................................... 10 46 Figure 3. Whangamarino River near Falls Road boatramp with a willow lined edge and a 47 stopbank edge in August 2007 (left) and March 2008 (right). Photos: Jeroen Brijs 48 (left) and Michael Lake (right). ................................................................................ 10 49 Figure 4. Flooded backwater with submerged vegetation and willows near the 50 Whangamarino River in August 2007. Photo: Brendan Hicks. ................................ 10 51 Figure 5. Length frequency of koi carp caught in the Whangamarino wetland system 52 between 20-23 August 2007 (n=69) and 3-6 March 2008 (n=97). ........................... 14 53 Figure 6. Length frequency of shortfinned eels caught in the Whangamarino wetland 54 system between 20-23 August 2007 and 3-6 March 2008. ....................................... 15 55 Figure 7. Weight frequency of shortfinned eels caught in the Whangamarino wetland 56 system between 20-23 August 2007 and 3-6 March 2008. ....................................... 15 57 Figure 8. Different types of tributaries flowing into the Whangamarino wetland system. 58 Stream flowing next to an outlet drain from Falls Road Quarry (A), stream flowing 59 through pasture at Drake Road Farm (B), stream flowing through Drake Road Bush 60 with both shallow riffles and deeper pools (C) and the stream flowing through the 61 Falls Road site (D). ................................................................................................... 17 62 63 List of Appendices 64 Appendix 1. Densities of introduced and native fish species caught in the Whangamarino 65 wetland between 20-23 August 2007 and 3-6 March 2008. – represents site not 66 fished...........................................................................................................................24 67 Appendix 2. Biomass of introduced and native fish species caught in the Whangamarino 68 wetland between 20-23 August 2007 and 3-6 March 2008. – represents site not 69 fished...........................................................................................................................25 70 71 72 73 Reviewed by: Approved for release by: 74 75 76 77 78 Michael Lake Nick Ling 79 Department of Conservation University of Waikato 1 80 Executive summary 81 A previous fish community survey carried out in the Whangamarino Wetland system 82 recorded 18 different fish species by netting, electrofishing, and interviews with local eel 83 fishermen and reports from Acclimatisation Society staff (Strickland, 1980). Strickland 84 reported that the most widespread and common species in the wetland were shortfinned 85 eels, mosquitofish, goldfish and catfish. In August 2007 and March 2008, the Centre for 86 Biodiversity and Ecology Research (CBER) were contracted to carry out an electric 87 fishing survey of the fish community in the Whangamarino Wetland and its tributaries. 88 Boat and backpack electrofishing caught a diverse range of native and introduced fish. A 89 total of 1,491 fish comprising 8 native fish species and 5 introduced fish species were 90 caught in a total fished area of 26,600 m2 or 2.66 ha from a total of 34 sites. Koi carp, 91 shortfinned eels, goldfish and common smelt were the most widespread fish species 92 throughout the wetland system. Fish distribution, density and biomass varied between 93 sites throughout the Whangamarino Wetland as well as between the two different time 94 periods (August 2007 and March 2008). Mean densities and biomasses of fish species at 95 most sites increased substantially in March 2008 compared to August 2007. 96 97 Major changes in the fish community from October 1980 to August 2007 and March 98 2008 were the presence of koi carp and the decrease in numbers of catfish. No koi carp 99 were discovered by Strickland in 1980 in his survey of the Whangamarino wetland 100 whereas we found that koi carp were widespread and abundant throughout the 101 Whangamarino wetland system, with mean densities of up to 6.1 fish 100 m-2 at some 102 sites. Biomass is a more accurate reflection of the potential ecological impact of koi carp 103 than their density and koi carp dominated the biomass at all of the sites in the 104 Whangamarino wetland both in August 2007 (mean biomass ranging from 0.6 to 13.6 g 105 m-2) and March 2008 (mean biomass ranging from 9.7 to 85.7 g m-2). Previous results 106 suggest that 15-65% of the total population estimate is caught on the first removal, 107 depending on the total number present (Hicks et al., 2006). As we fished over the area at 108 each site only once, the estimates in this survey represent a minimum abundance, and 109 true
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