Wairewa tuna season

Wairewa tuna

On the night of 16 April, the pou tuna or the large female tuna that is the tohu entered the drains and signified the closing of the tuna season – a practice that has been handed down from our tīpuna. We would like to thank all the fishers who received permits and returned their numbers for the year. If you still haven’t returned numbers for a permit, could you please do so as soon as possible. Nā Wairewa Tangata Tiaki.

Trap and transfer of tuna

There were two reasonable runs this year during the tuna season and all fishers caught kai, however no adult migrating tuna were able to get to sea.

Whānau have been setting hīnaki in the canal and these were checked for numbers, counted and released to sea. We need to make sure that in the joint consent with the Christchurch City Council (CCC), that there is the ability to open the lake for cultural and environmental reasons, i.e. to release migrating tuna to sea and that these are considered a normal opening and measured against CCC bottom lines, ie environmental sustainability.

This spring we need to concentrate on a spring opening of the lake, which we haven’t had for three years.

We need the lake to be at a minimum of 2.80m, so we can open for at least five days, then drop the lake to 2m and close it. This will enable the recruitment of elvers (glass eels). We would then look at ways to measure the amount entering the lake. This can be achieved through netting at night when the canal has been opened to the sea.

Nets or traps using mānuka as the substrate, as traditionally used, would be designed and placed in the lake while the canal is open. The catch would be weighed to determine the amount. If this can be achieved, later in the year some further work in the streams would be required to confirm that the elvers have moved up the lake into the rivers.