It’s amazing how a few short weeks can change things so
drastically, 6 weeks of 30+ temperatures and we began to see something very unusual.
In one side creek that runs through a mate’s property, he
noticed a large number of eels on the banks “gasping”?? There was also a white deposit
in the creek, so he called in the local council who tested the water for O2 levels
and found there was basically no oxygen in it.
So why? Being a clever chap he had noticed that the willows bordering
the creek where absolutely covered in Aphids, I mean completely covered,
feeding off the incredibly high sugar levels that willows produce, the
resulting excrement was going straight into the river and un educated guess was
that there was possibly some sort of significant Nitrate in it, which combined
with the 2 km stretch meant significant damage was being done to the
ecosystem. Bugs not cows.
This gentleman collected up and disposed of about 40 eels,
just in his section of the creek, some of quite significant size. This creek is
spring fed.
These nitrates caused a major increase in weed
and slime production, all life in pools seemed to have died or disappeared, the
growth continued and then all of a sudden the weed died and system totally
collapsed everything let go and now nearly 3 months later the stream is pretty devoid
of anything.
In the main river where we fish, insect life, bullies and general
fish literally disappeared over a two week phase, maybe this was a contributing
factor, but as you can’t fine bugs, who cares??
We have seen these aphids in the willows over the last three
years, but never in the number we saw this year, they were so thick, if you
parked under a willow and banged the branch above your car you literally got
covered???
From what we can see it is only a local issue, possibly due
to our unusually high temperatures we sustained in late summer this year.
o Neill wrote: What's the latest on that dam on the Tukituki Tiggs? |
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