Mr. Rupene of Tuahiwi says he doesn’t know about the slimy green mud that thickly coats the delicacy, his equipment and his clothes, but he is concerned for the welfare of all those who eat whitefish at the mouth of the river caught.
He, his brothers and friends have camped every year during the coarse fishing season in the Fenton Reserve at the mouth of the Ashley River.
“My whanau have been fishing here for generations,” he says.
But he is shocked by the polluted state of the river.
In the past two weeks, he says it’s gotten so bad that he’s posted several photos about it on his Facebook page and has received a large number of comments from people fishing for whitefish up and down the river, agreeing. that there is something wrong with the quality of the river water .
He has also filed a complaint with Environment Canterbury.
“Over the past few weeks, exceptionally large amounts of what I believe may be animal feces have flowed down the river.
“My nets and clothes are covered in it, it gets on our clothes when we brush against our nets, it stains and we have to wash the clothes with disinfectant,” he says. “If it’s at the mouth, what’s it like further up the river, where people are swimming and playing.”
It’s the third year it’s happened and every day he tells them to wash their catches in fresh water four times to be safe. Then he washes his clothes to sterilize them.
Mr Rupene says there’s a lot of fish there, whitefish, smelt, cockabullies and others, and it’s a very important resource for trout and herring.
He says the river was otherwise great, as the season was delayed due to the high rainfall in July/August, which polluted the water.
The Environment Marco Cataloni, the regional supply leader from Canterbury North Canterbury, says two employees visited the Ashley River estuary last Friday to conduct E. coli testing.
“The staff were there to confirm E. coli in the river and to indicate if there was a discharge point somewhere upstream from the mouth of the river,” he says.
According to the latest reports, the water is clear, but more tests needed to be done.
“Monitoring the water status of the Ashley River is a priority because, like the complainant, we are concerned about all river users.
“We need to see if we can locate and identify what’s in the water and where the source is,” he says.
Mr Rupene confirmed that the officers had visited the site.
“It was great to see them there, they took water samples in a number of places and then scraped the nets and clothes off us. Now we all have to wait to see how the results come back,” said Rupene.
E. coli can come from contamination from birds, cattle or humans.
The mud in the river could also be a sediment bloom caused by the large flocks of birds that nest around the river, which has happened in other rivers.
Mr Cataloni says that depending on the sample results, which they won’t know until they later return from an accredited lab, they will take the next steps in the investigation. Until then, they all have to wait.
ECan annually monitors all farms along the river. Mr Cataloni says they should investigate where the reported contamination could come from if the test comes back positive.
“We have a range of enforcement tools on hand and we are examining it all on a case-by-case basis, looking at the circumstances and mitigation of each case.
“Right now we just don’t know, that’s why we’re testing.”