Protecting our native freshwater fish species is extremely important. Canterbury Regional Council (Environment Canterbury) owns and maintains many instream structures like flood gates, culverts and weirs across Waitaha/Canterbury, and some can make it difficult for ika/fish to move through waterways to travel for food sources and to return to breeding grounds. Some fish species need to be able to climb, others need safe places to rest when swimming large distances.
As part of this project over a dozen instream structures are being made more fish friendly. This includes upgrading some infrastructure (flood gates, culverts, weirs) without compromising their flood protection functionality, placing or removing rock around the existing structures. This project will continue to safeguard communities as well as improve travel for up to 14 species of ika, including native taonga species tuna (long and shortfin eel) and īnanga/īnaka (common galaxias). This supports both our kaitiakitanga/stewardship and biodiversity values.
