River Study to Measure Health

By MCCARTHY, Phil

A GROUND-BREAKING study on the health of the Mataura River catchment is under way this week with researchers collecting samples of natural species, water and sediments from the 240km catchment.

Southland tangata whenua in partnership with Landcare Research are undertaking a two-and-a-half-year project to gather new information on the river system.

A team consisting of iwi, Landcare Research, Department of Conservation and HortResearch representatives has set up a temporary laboratory in part of the old Mataura papermill site to take and store samples.

Project leader Jamie Ataria said he hoped the results would give more of an indication about the river’s health — what was going right and what was going wrong.

“This is the body of the work now. We’re really starting to get into it now … getting our feet wet.” Complex Chemistry analysis of the samples would be done to show chemical residues and other evidence of river system impacts.

Researchers were interested in the “sub-lethal” effects the quality of the river’s system was having on species such as fish, he said.

Study sites cover the river from source to sea, which includes New Zealand’s first fresh water mataitai (reserve) in Mataura at Te Au-Nui, a kanakana (lamprey) fishery.

The project had been made possible by support from local and central government agencies, iwi, businesses and other groups.

——————–

(c) 2007 Southland Times, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.