{"id":399742,"date":"2026-04-27T10:31:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399742\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T10:31:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T10:31:18","slug":"department-of-conservation-horizon-regional-council-investigate-drying-of-pukepuke-lagoon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/399742\/","title":{"rendered":"Department of Conservation, Horizon Regional Council investigate drying of Pukepuke Lagoon"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pukepuke<\/p>\n

\nAbout 3000 eels were rescued from Pukepuke Lagoon after it had dried up.
\nPhoto: LDR \/ Supplied \/ Rangit\u0101ne o Manawat\u016b Settlement Trust\n<\/p>\n

An investigation into how a coastal Manawat\u016b lake dried out, causing the deaths of eels and fish, is continuing, while recent rainfall means the water level has begun to rise.<\/p>\n

Iwi volunteers rescued about 3000 eels<\/a> from Pukepuke Lagoon, after Horizons Regional Council staff found it had dried out just over a fortnight ago.<\/p>\n

The drying came after a prolonged period of dry weather, but the cause isn’t yet known.<\/p>\n

On conservation land between Himatangi and Tangimoana, just to the west of nearby State Highway 1, Pukepuke Lagoon covers about 15 hectares, although it’s significantly smaller than it once was.<\/p>\n

Local iwi told RNZ they believed changes in the use of surrounding land, including farming and forestry, needed investigation.<\/p>\n

Horizons chief executive Michael McCartney said this had begun.<\/p>\n

“Horizons Regional Council has agreed to work with partners, including iwi and Department of Conservation (DOC), to conduct an independent investigation to determine what happened at Pukepuke Lagoon.<\/p>\n

“This includes looking at environmental data from the surrounding landscape – rainfall, groundwater levels, lake levels from other lakes in the area – mapping of heights of the lake and surrounding area, and looking for digging of additional drains.”<\/p>\n

He said a LiDAR survey of the lake had been completed, creating 3D images of landscapes.<\/p>\n

“It is important to understand this is a highly valued dune lake ecosystem, and the response from our iwi, farming community, and ecologists and experts has been warmly received.<\/p>\n

“Identifying the key factors which contributed to the lagoon drying out and clearly setting out the impacts is crucial for ensuring appropriate measures are taken to prevent this re-occurring.”<\/p>\n

McCartney said rainfall over the past two weeks had helped raise water levels in the area and drains surrounding the lake had filled.<\/p>\n

Water levels in the lagoon were 300-400 millimetres deep, when measured last week.<\/p>\n

DOC Manawat\u016b operations manager Moana Smith-Dunlop said it would provide further updates about the situation when it knew more.<\/p>\n

When the drying was discovered, dozens of local iwi volunteers joined rescue efforts at the lake.<\/p>\n

These continued for days and, although many eels were rescued, the lake bed was littered with dead eels when RNZ visited.<\/p>\n

Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 3000 eels were rescued from Pukepuke Lagoon after it had dried up. Photo: LDR \/ Supplied \/…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-399742","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399742","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=399742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}