Lake Omapere trustees fish for money

By DANIEL JACKSON and Tony GEE

KAIKOHE - The trustees of Northland's biggest lake are searching for sponsors to pay for fish they hope will give it breathing space from the weed that threatens to choke it.

The Lake Omapere Trust is pinning its hopes on being able to raise enough money to buy 30,000 grass-eating carp to keep the lake's 55,000 tonnes of exotic weed in check until a better solution is found. Locals fear that if the weed is not checked it will fill the shallow 1200ha lake near Kaikohe and then die and rot, causing a toxic overflow into the region's streams and harbours similar to that of 1985.

Environment Minister Marian Hobbs visited the lake on Wednesday night, but gave waiting Maori owners and trustees, farmers, council representatives, environmentalists and others little assurance of a short-term solution.

Early this year, her ministry rejected the trust's application for $2.8 million to pay for fish.

Ms Hobbs said yesterday that the scientific advice she had received was that the lake could not be saved immediately by introducing more carp.

"I am not sure whether putting more than $2 million into something that scientific advice says may not work is a good idea," she said. She favoured a land management policy to control the amount of nitrates from surrounding farms, which seep into the lake and feed the weeds.

Her ministry was willing to offer advice and assistance to manage the lake. She had not completely disregarded the carp idea and would speak again to her scientific advisers about paying for the fish.

Trust spokesman Gray Jamieson said Ms Hobbs' comments at the lake had given the trust some hope of money in the New Year.

In the meantime, the trust was approaching potential sponsors to help raise about $500,000 to buy the extra 30,000 carp, on top of the 8000 fish it put in Omapere's waters this year.

The lake was in better shape than Ms Hobbs' experts believed and possibly had up to two years before the weed began to rot, he said. "We believe we've got enough time for the lake to be saved."

The trust had also made an application to Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton for money. Mr Jamieson said the lake's waters could be used for irrigating surrounding farms as well as for fish farming, which would provide employment and economic benefits for the region.