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<\/p>\nWallabies have been eradicated in one forest and a lake restored – but catfish, crabs and some pest plants are spreading in the Bay of Plenty, a new report shows.<\/p>\n
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council said it is “winning” the battle against invasive species despite the mixed results.<\/p>\n
The council’s pest control report for 2025\/26 was released last week.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
It found 92 percent of pest management programmes were on track and no new pests became established.<\/p>\n
A major success was the elimination of wallabies from Endean Forest, near Rotorua.<\/p>\n
Wallabies were introduced from Australia more than a century ago and spread unchecked. More than one million are now thought to live in the wild in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
An aerial 1080 operation was carried out on Endean Forest in August 2025. A year later, surveillance cameras no longer detected wallabies in the forest or surrounding area.<\/p>\n
The operation aimed to stop the pest from spreading west into the Mamaku Plateau.<\/p>\n
Across the Bay of Plenty, 2295 wallabies were culled during the year, including 33 in areas targeted for complete eradication.<\/p>\n
Lake \u014ck\u0101reka was another success. The lake’s health score rose from 36 percent in 2013 to 70 percent by 2025.<\/p>\n
![\"Wallabies](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4JHYUPB_WALLABIES_BOP_NUMBERS_jpg.jpeg\")
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Wallabies were introduced here from Australia.<\/p>\n
Thermalair<\/p>\n
More than a decade of weed control has resulted in hornwort, one of New Zealand’s worst aquatic weeds, being undetected since 2015.<\/p>\n
Two other invasive weeds, egeria and elodea, are also no longer detected, while lagarosiphon remains at low levels.<\/p>\n
Council biosecurity manager Hamish Lass said the wallaby “elimination” was significant because it prevented population spread into the Waikato.<\/p>\n
“It also supports the effectiveness of aerial 1080 as a tool to eliminate wallaby,” he said.<\/p>\n
Lass said \u014ck\u0101reka was now “very close” to being free of invasive aquatic weeds.<\/p>\n
“The lake’s strong ecological recovery shows what can be achieved through long-term investment, strong partnerships, regular surveillance and rapid response.”<\/p>\n
![\"Te](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4JHYUPB_TE_AWARA_TRUST_S_CATFISH_KILLAS_jpg.jpeg\")
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Te Arawa Lakes Trust’s Catfish Killas work to remove the slimy invasive species from the rohe.<\/p>\n
Rotorua Daily Post<\/p>\n
However, one of the more significant concerns in the report was the surge in brown bullhead catfish in Lake Rotorua and Lake Rotoiti.<\/p>\n
A total of 19,589 catfish were caught during the year, compared with 5477 the previous year, despite fewer nets being deployed.<\/p>\n
The report said catch rates had increased substantially and noted most fish caught were juveniles, indicating strong ongoing breeding.<\/p>\n
Lass said the council was “concerned” the population appeared to be increasing despite “ongoing control efforts”.<\/p>\n
“While control operations removed nearly 20,000 catfish during the year, the data suggests the population remains resilient and may be growing.”<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4JHYUPB_ASIAN_PADDLE_CRAB_TAURANGA_HARBOUR_jpg.jpeg\")
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The Asian paddle crab is now established within Tauranga Harbour.<\/p>\n
Bay of Plenty Times<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Asian paddle crab population in Tauranga Harbour is now so high that “containment is no longer realistically achievable”.<\/p>\n
Lass said the focus had shifted to monitoring, targeted removals, community engagement and understanding the long-term impacts of the species on the harbour ecosystem.<\/p>\n
Several widespread pest plant programmes are also struggling against infestations.<\/p>\n
Woolly nightshade remains the region’s largest plant pest programme, with infestations spread across 1723 properties. Recorded pest cover increased by almost 29,000sq m during the year, reaching more than 335,000sq m.<\/p>\n
Wild kiwifruit also expanded, with infestations increasing by more than 28,000sq m to almost 359,000sq m across 1074 properties.<\/p>\n
“The wide-scale distribution of these species, the fact they are spread by birds, coupled with fast growth rates, makes them very challenging to manage,” Lass said.<\/p>\n
![\"Woolly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/4JHYUPB_WOOLY_NIGHTSHADE_BAY_OF_PLENTY_jpg.jpeg\")
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Woolly nightshade is the region\u2019s largest plant pest programme.<\/p>\n
Supplied<\/p>\n
He said the current budget and staff numbers were “not considered adequate” to make significant progress in managing these species.<\/p>\n
Additional increases were recorded for yellow flag iris, Darwin’s barberry and apple of Sodom. The council attributed some of the growth to improved surveillance uncovering previously unknown infestations.<\/p>\n
The report highlighted successes in controlling other invasive plants, including the near-eradication of sporobolus grass from Tauranga Moana estuaries and significant reductions in lantana, old man’s beard and Italian buckthorn infestations.<\/p>\n
Overall, the council completed 4403 property inspections during 2025\/26, received 1094 public inquiries and found no new exclusion pests (pests not currently known to be in the region).<\/p>\n
Lass pointed to 92 percent of pest management programmes remaining on track and the absence of any new exclusion pests becoming established as evidence of success.<\/p>\n
“Overall, the regional council considers the Bay of Plenty to be winning the battle against invasive pests and weeds.”<\/p>\n
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallabies have been eradicated in one forest and a lake restored – but catfish, crabs and some pest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607000,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-606999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606999","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=606999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}