Councillors discussed how to protect the region’s lakes and why a public road had been blocked during an infrastructure and environment committee meeting on Wednesday.
Last week, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) issued a month-long controlled area notice at Lake Ōkataina after locals and the Ngāti Tarāwhai iwi raised concerns. Fishing, jet skiing and boating are banned during the closure.
Gold clams have become well-established in the Waikato River. They have multiplied to occupy a 99-kilometre stretch, but had not been found outside of this area.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Rotorua Lakes councillor Conan O’Brien asked Bay of Plenty Regional Council councillor Kevin Winters about investment into the issue, including for boat cleaning.
Councillor Conan O'Brien has asked about the invasive gold clam. Photo / Laura Smith
Winters said MPI would provide funding. He understood Te Arawa Lakes Trust would provide staff, paid for by MPI.
“At this stage, we don’t have any money in the budget for clams because they are not in our regional pest management strategy yet, because they are not here.”
Everyone had a role to play in biosecurity at the lakes, he said.
MPI had been searching the lake and sifting sediments and testing DNA, including at Ōkataina, sport, recreation and environment manager Rob Pitkethley said.
Boats going into Ōkataina would be stopped and checked, and information would be gathered on where they came from.
Rotorua Lakes Council sport, recreation and environment manager Rob Pitkethley. Photo / Laura Smith
The established populations in the Waikato were suspected to have been for a “couple of years”, although only discovered in May, he said.
Discussions were under way on what it meant for other Te Arawa lakes, he said.
“There is a very strong message going to MPI about State Highway 5 [and] SH30. There are not a lot of ways in from the Waikato. What are the other control methods that MPI need to be thinking about, wider than the entrance to Ōkataina?”
He described it as a “fast-moving situation” in terms of asking MPI questions on the issue.
Security was employed to block boat access to the lake last week.
O’Brien said he believed this occurred on September 27, before official restrictions came into effect on October 1.
He said he understood it was a situation in which “time is of the essence”, but asked what the process was now.
He was concerned about someone setting up a perimeter on land the council was responsible for, blocking public access, without an enforceable action.
Pitkethley said the council had been aware that MPI was considering restrictions in light of that “imminent” decision on the lake’s closure.
“Technically, yes, there was a blockage across a public road.”
Laura Smith is a Local Democracy Reporting journalist based at the Rotorua Daily Post. She previously reported general news for the Otago Daily Times and Southland Express, and has been a journalist for four years.
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