Rare native fish teeming stream

CAMERON BURNELL/ Taranaki Daily News

GONE FISHIN': New Zealand native fish expert Charles Mitchell checks out a giant kokopu caught in the Huatoki Stream yesterday. The stream has been found to contain good numbers of rare native fish.

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An inner-city New Plymouth stream is teeming with rare native fish life, researchers have discovered.

Fish pulled up or spotted in the stream include one of New Zealand's rarest fish, the shortjaw kokopu, as well as the endangered giant kokopu and the rare banded kokopu.

Raglan-based native fish expert Charles Mitchell said there were records of the rare fish in the New Plymouth stream but he hadn't expected them to be quite so common.

"They are very much a fish of native forest so it's great to find them in an urban catchment," he said.

"New Plymouth's got rare native fish in the middle of its central business district so you're obviously doing something right."

The shortjaw kokopu were found in the upper Huatoki catchment and Mr Mitchell said they were some of the largest specimens of the fish he had seen.

Other native fish found include long and short fin eels, red fin bullys and inanga.

Fish life in the Huatoki Stream is being monitored as the New Plymouth District Council prepares to put a weir and fish pass in at the new Huatoki Plaza.

It will monitor upstream sites for the next few years so it can make sure the weir and fish pass are working properly.

A total of six pools are being monitored with fyke nets, and Mr Mitchell and NPDC parks programmes manager Steve McGill have been using a kick net to monitor rapids and a spotlight at night to monitor runs.

Mr McGill said they were really pleased to have found the different varieties of fish and in such good numbers too.

The fish are let go once they have been caught and recorded.

- © Fairfax NZ News