Eels returned to stream after being dumped at compost facility

Live eels at a composting site following the excavation of Salty Creek at Westminster Avenue by contractors for Napier City Council. Photo / Merv McNatty

Eels hauled up from a stream during digger work wound up being dumped on the ground at a compost facility, infuriating a man who followed a council contractor’s truck to see what would happen.

BioRich, which received the eels, says any live ones that “hitchhiked” to its facility were then collected and returned to the stream.

And Napier City Council says the way the incident was dealt with follows the code of practice for eel rescues, as set by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council after previous controversies in the region.

But that’s not enough for Merv McNatty, who says the eels should never have been taken to the facility in the first place.

McNatty, who is passionate about the environment, said whenever he saw work being carried out on local waterways he stopped to see how it was being done.

“I was concerned when I asked where truckloads of excavated material they were scooping out of Salty Creek in Prebensen Drive were being taken to and they said BioRich.”

McNatty followed the truck to the composting site where he watched and took photos as it released its load, including live eels.

“I tried to grab them [the eels]. I wasn’t sure what I would do at that stage - just put them on the floor of my car and go to the nearest waterway.

“But before I could even get hold of one, I was asked to leave by staff.

“Taking eels from Hawke’s Bay waterways to a private compost facility is culturally and environmentally inhumane and should not happen.

“Once the trucks have gone through the gate of a private landfill, there is no control of what happens to the eels.”

McNatty claimed there were no council staff on site and claimed before he left staff told him a previous truckload had immediately been taken to be mixed.

“While I was there, there was no effort to recover live eels.”

He said it wasn’t BioRich’s fault it had been given eels to deal with, and he felt it was Napier City Council’s responsibility to ensure that as much of the bycatch as possible is rescued and returned to the waterway.

A spokesperson for the council said an important part of keeping urban waterways clean was to clear weeds.

“This is done by a contractor with council staff on site. It is an [Hawke’s Bay Regional Council] task and contractor, so the code of practice is the same. The weed is cleared using a digger with a bucket head. When the bucket head lifts the weed it is shaken to release any eels.

Material taken from a Napier stream, including live eels, being dumped at a Napier compost site.

“Occasionally an eel will remain in the bucket. Weed is put into a truck, and taken to a composting facility.

“In the past, the process was to take weed to the Redclyffe Transfer Station but for environmental reasons, it is now taken to the composting facility.

“Any eels found in the truck are returned to a waterway by facility staff.”

Further questions, including how many eels had been rescued by BioRich, did not receive a response from council by deadline.

McNatty, who is a semi-retired teacher of children with special needs, claimed it was not the first time he’d witnessed an incident like it.

“Last year I saw material taken from Prebensen Drive to a different private landfill. I was only able to rescue live eels from one truckload.”

In 2019, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council was investigated by the Ministry for Primary Industries after hundreds of eels were uplifted in tonnes of mud cleared from drains near Puketapu.

The mud was dumped on a river bank and resulted in the deaths of many of them.

No one was prosecuted, however, the regional council set up a working group with representatives from Hastings district and Napier city councils, the Department of Conservation, local iwi and Hawke’s Bay Fish and Game to come up with a new code of practice.

The new code says a stream evaluation survey must begin prior to work on waterways, and eels, fish or other megafauna found in the survey must be removed before work starts.

Trucks must then be emptied within an hour of removal, with material spread at a clean fill site so “fish rescuers” can recover living eels and megafauna wearing gloves and using nets and buckets.

Rescued eels are then taken to the nearest waterway.

The regional council said Napier city and Hastings district councils should be following the same code of practice and that all councils had input into its development.

In a statement, BioRich operations management Nigel Halpin said it had been working with Napier City Council to compost the vegetation removed from drains.

“Any live eels that have hitchhiked to BioRich with the vegetation are collected and returned to the stream. So far discussions with [Napier City Council] and a river and lake ecology consultant have indicated these procedures are acceptable.”

LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.