Protecting a special native animal

Forest and Bird, Issue 279, 1 February 1996, Page 17

Protecting a special native animal

IKE ALL native animals, mudfish are protected in national parks and reserves. But outside these areas they enjoy no special protection under the Wildlife Act or the Freshwater Fisheries Regulations. They can be taken either for human consumption or for scientific purposes. There are certainly good arguments for better formal protection of native fish species — the only native vertebrates not given protection as a group. It is anomalous that those native fish listed as threatened by DoC — and all three mudfish species fit into this category — are not formally protected. Although mudfish, being CATE. DONEC LLL BR LEGS ELLEN EE.

secretive and with no current value as a food or commodity, are not threatened by exploitation, such protection would assist in advocacy under the Resource Management Act in protecting remaining mudfish habitat. It would also safeguard the fish from any future threats such as collection. But it is the loss of habitat that has had the main impact on mudfish populations. And despite the destruction of 90 percent or more of our wetlands, drainage on farmland still continues in New Zealand, especially on a small scale, uncontrolled or without appropriate resource consents. The irony is that it is often only when the drainage occurs that the mudfish are discovered.

According to Bob McDowall all three species have "suffered enormously" from wetland drainage and all have a "perilous" conservation status. In Northland, the Hikurangi Swamp inland from Whangarei was an important habitat for black mudfish. This large wetland was largely drained for pasture conversion during the 1950s and 60s. Small remnants remain such as the Otakairangi Wildlife Management Reserve. It was in Otakairangi that two black mudfish were discovered by DoC staff in August last year — the first find in the Hikurangi for 30 years. Kaimaumau Swamp, north of Kaitaia was also a favoured habitat for this species, and much of it is unprotected and under threat of drainage. Although one by one much of the black mudfish’s remaining habitats have been lost, the protection of the Whangamarino wetland in the Waikato, has ensured that one substantial area has been saved for that species. The Canterbury mudfish is the most restricted in distribution and probably the most threatened of the three. Tony Eldon has pointed out that it has faced "a battery of adverse conditions" in recent decades: exaggerated flood/drought cycles, water removal, stream channelling and the introduction of exotic predators such as trout. Canterbury has probably lost even a greater proportion of its wetlands than other regions. Faunal reserves have been suggested as a way of improving its prospects, but these would need to be substantial to avoid the effects of lowering of water tables in adjoining areas. Ian Close