She said HBRC teams collected water samples from several locations in the Waiatai and Ikanui streams. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese samples were tested in accredited laboratories for a wide range of contaminants. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe findings indicate the eel deaths were caused by a natural blackwater event, made worse by the combination of extreme heat and heavy rainfall in early January, which put the entire aquatic system under severe stress.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith conditions changing so quickly and the stream under immense stress, even resilient species like tuna were unable to survive.\u201d <\/p>\n
A blackwater event occurs when heavy rain washes large amounts of natural material, such as leaves, grasses, and wetland debris, into a stream. As it breaks down, it rapidly consumes oxygen in the water. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn this case, oxygen levels dropped to just 1.9%, which is effectively no oxygen at all. In healthy freshwater streams, oxygen levels typically sit above 80%,\u201d Siers said. <\/p>\n
She said over time the landscape around the stream had changed, with less shade, altered wetlands, and warmer water, leaving it more vulnerable to sudden weather shifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are steps that can be taken collectively to help build the resilience of the Waiat\u0101i Stream, including native planting, restoring wetlands and natural stream flow paths and keeping fish passages open. <\/p>\n
Hill\u2019s daughter Kate Eaglesome, who lives on Kairangi Station further downstream, said at the time there was nothing left alive in the stream. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s good now to finally have an answer,\u201d Eaglesome said. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut I want to see some action. Let\u2019s start planning now to give the stream life a fighting chance. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe water still looks quite dark. We did see a couple of baby eels on Saturday, which was nice to see, but also sad. Usually, the stream would be teeming with them.\u201d <\/p>\n
Eaglesome said she was proud of her dad for all the work he did behind the scenes.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe got the ball rolling and has been so supportive. As have Michelle McIlroy and Katarina Kawana from Wairoa Awa Mauri Restoration.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said autumn and winter were the perfect times to start planting. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo let\u2019s do it. No more talking, it\u2019s time to get moving.\u201d <\/p>\n
Siers acknowledged how upsetting the eel deaths had been for so many. <\/p>\n
\u201cFor mana whenua, landowners, and everyone with a strong connection to the area, this has been distressing to witness. I appreciate the deep care and kaitiakitanga (guardianship) shown by the community over the past month.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrengthening the health and mauri of the Waiat\u0101i Stream is something we all care about, and we\u2019re committed to working alongside mana whenua, landowners, and the wider community to protect it moving forward.\u201d <\/p>\n
Post-mortem couldn\u2019t be completed<\/p>\n
One of the dead eels was sent to Massey University for a post-mortem examination on January 15, arriving on January 16. <\/p>\n
The university\u2019s Associate Professor in Wildlife Pathology, Stuart Hunter, said he examined the eel the morning it arrived, but by then it was too decomposed to determine the cause of death or run any other tests. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it comes to issues with water quality (such as low levels of oxygen, pollutants) causing animal mortalities, post-mortem findings are not very specific, that is, there are often not characteristic changes to the internal organs that point specifically to a particular toxin. <\/p>\n
\u201cWater testing is much more useful,\u201d Hunter said. <\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She said HBRC teams collected water samples from several locations in the Waiatai and Ikanui streams. \u201cThese samples…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8038,151182,34353,8604,5205,15166,65886,37827,8231,1866,24176,27135,111,43,139,69,8323,5909,1305,31788,765,764,1361,61,114497,151181,15289],"class_list":["post-264753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-natural","tag-blackwater","tag-blame","tag-caused","tag-council","tag-deaths","tag-eel","tag-eels","tag-event","tag-find","tag-hundreds","tag-lack","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-oxygen","tag-results","tag-show","tag-stream","tag-test","tag-tests","tag-that","tag-to","tag-tuna","tag-waiati","tag-wairoa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}