NZFSS Forums

Freshwater Macroinvertebrate Taxonomist Part Time Position Available

2012-04-11T11:15:51+12:00

Owing to the growth in demand for freshwater macroinvertebrate taxonomy, EIA Ltd wish to appoint a part time freshwater macroinvertebrate taxonomist. The position is likely to be 20 hours per week and there is flexibility around the days those hours are worked. Remuneration will be dependent on qualifications and experience. On site training will be provided if up skilling is needed. Ideally the candidate would live in Auckland, although if the person has extensive experience, then working from home in another region is possible. Please contact Brett Stansfield on 09 475 9533 or 021 1104814 if this position interests you. Alternatively please forward your C.V to eia at actrix dot co dot nz

Conference Proceedings

2012-03-06T07:34:07+12:00

Can anyone tell me how to access previous NZFSS conference proceedings? I am trying to find the proceedings of a conference held in Taranaki. I think it would be a good idea to have these available from the NZFSS website

No scientists at MfE, poor understanding of the science and poor analysis of data

2011-05-23T21:25:07+12:00

Thanks to Mike Joy for his exposure of these problems and great that the media took the time to do the interview.

Environmental Scientist, Mike Joy, talks about water quality in New Zealand.
See link:
http://tvnz.co.nz/media7/s6-e16-extra-video-4181157?fb_ref=facelike&fb_source=profile_oneline

Obstructions To Fish Passage Seminar - Kapiti Coast

2011-03-30T16:47:29+12:00

Hi all.

Everyone is most welcome to attend the public seminar on Obstructions To Fish Passage being hosted by GWRC at the Otaki.

Venue: Otaki Memorial Hall (Main Hall)
Main Street
Otaki

Time: 3pm – 5pm (tea, coffee & biscuits provided).
Date: Tuesday 5th April 2011

Please contact Anna Burrows to RSVP and for more info.

04 830 4423 or anna dot burrows at gw dot govt dot nz

NPS on Biodiversity

2011-03-17T19:49:30+12:00

Hi all

I have taken on the role of assisting with the advocacy work on behalf of the Society. There will be a number of issues that require some attention and your input if you so desire, beginning with this topic.

David Hamilton has drafted a letter to this process that you may have some comment on. I will get this posted in the main pages of the Societies web so that you can view the file. This should also hopefully allow you access to a link to then send me your comments directly.

Keep an eye out for this so that you can add your views.

cheers

Iain

Feel good eel rescue story.

2011-01-23T09:23:21+12:00

Life down on the farm is always interesting and last week we had a great time rescuing hundreds of migrating elvers. The kids on a neighboring lifestyle block gave me a call as they know I am passionate about fish passage. Their favorite swimming hole is served by a perched culvert (we have discussed fixing it next time the digger comes) and a large number of elvers were congregating unable to make their way upstream. I happen to have a large quantity of mussel spat rope for other fish passage work I have been doing in the area. We cut three pieces to length and plaited them for extra intrigue. Next we tied the ropes off at the upstream end of the culvert allowing the strong current to pull them through down into the pool at the other end. Within a few hours all of the elvers has managed to climb up the ropes and move into the upper catchment, probably disappointing the large resident eel that is regularly hand fed.

Spat ropes have been deployed in a few places in the Coromandel buy Bruno David et al primarily targeting climbing species such as koaro. While it has been assumed that eels can cope with more extreme obstacles and cross wet grass from time to time, it was great to actually witness the elvers climbing up the rope. This was the first time elvers had been observed at this particular culvert and may be as as a result of me fitting ropes to another culvert someway down stream a year or so previously.

Given the low cost, speed and ease of this type of fix (even as a temporary measure) I am thinking of working with BOPRC to put together a rapid response team as there are many such sites in the Bay of Plenty Region.

Strange event in lake

2010-12-06T12:25:46+12:00

Lake Namunamu is a small, eutrophic lake near Hunterville that we (at Massey) have been observing for teaching (13 ha, 18 m max). It is usually strongly stratified from Sept - May and has no permanent inflows or outflows. In the last week of November an event was reported by people who had been swimming at the lake each evening. The lake was a dense yellow brown colour and smelled “very bad”. This had developed within 24 hrs. The lake began to clear over the next few days. When we visited to take some measurements a week after the event, the colour had gone (Secchi depth 3.2 m), and so had the oxygen. We recorded 3 mg/L in the first metre and then about 0.1 mg/L over the remaining depth. The lake is stocked with rainbow trout and we saw one distressed fish at the surface but no sign of a major fish kill.

The lake showed signs of a recent stratification - an exponential increase in temperature to within 1 metre of the surface. The bottom 6 m are at 8.8 degrees, the surface 22.9. There is very little plankton in the lake, light attenuation curve shows no concentrations of anything at any particular depth, the water column seems very uniform and there is 100 times more light at 12 m than is usual when we measure during summer stratification.

So what has happened? We initially assumed that the lake had somehow turned over but the lake should be strongly stratified by late November and there had been no extreme wind. Also the bottom is very cold. If the lake had mixed in November we would expect the hypolimnion to be warmer than usual - but it is not, the heat content of the entire lake is about 20% less than normal for Nov/Dec. We suspected an underwater sediment slide may have brought anoxic sediment to the surface but there was no sign of a ‘high tide’ mark as could be expected from a major seiche. There were no major local earthquakes at the time and no sign of erosion in the catchment.

Does anyone have any ideas? Have any other lakes behaved unusually this year?

Ian Henderson, Ian Stringer, Ian Latta.

Discussion on Code of Ethics for NZFSS members

2010-09-14T13:49:04+12:00

At the last AGM meeting the members briefly discussed the idea of developing and introducing a Code of Ethics or Principles for the membership. A number of professional Societies have these. The Royal Society, for example, has developed an extensive Code of Ethics which our Society could adopt.

One purpose of a formal code might be to explicitly state the expectations of professional conduct of the Society’s members. However, the adoption of a Code might also imply the need for some mechanism to deal with complaints or potentially serious breaches of the code. There has been a recent example of this in the Royal Society where a “Fellow” has been subjected to disciplinary action due to falsifications in a Marsden Grant.

Typical principals might include (this is modified from ESAs code):
Members will;

1. Offer professional advice and guidance only on those subjects in which they are informed and qualified through professional training or experience.
2. Not plagiarize in verbal or written communication, and make every effort to avoid misrepresentation.
3. Not fabricate, falsify, or suppress results, deliberately misrepresent research findings, or otherwise commit scientific fraud.
4. Conduct their research so as to avoid or minimize adverse environmental effects of their presence and activities.
5. Not discriminate against others, in the course of their work on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, marital status, creed, religion, race, color, national origin, age, economic status, disability, or organizational affiliation.
6. Not practice or condone harassment in any form in any professional context.
7. In communications, ecologists should clearly differentiate facts, opinions, and hypotheses.
8. Will not seek employment, grants, or gain, nor attempt to injure the reputation or professional opportunities of another scientist by false, biased, or undocumented claims, by offers of gifts or favors, or by any other malicious action.

Questions for the membership:
1. Do you feel that the Society needs to adopt a Code of Ethics?
2. What would you see as the main purposes of such a code?
3. How might complaints about breaches of the code by individuals be dealt with?

Blocking of fish gills by suspended solids

2010-11-03T12:51:30+12:00

Hi all,
In a few recent cases, the issue of the blocking/clogging of native fish gills by suspended solids came up. Now I have seen this argument in many places in the past, but I cannot find any actual publications to support it.
I am aware of the excellent work of Rowe, Boubee, Richardson and co on the effects of turbidity/TSS on avoidance and feeding behaviour, etc.., and I am also aware of the ARCTP 337 on lethal turbidity levels for common native fish species, but I can’t find any work that proposes, or supports the clogging of gills by suspended solids as a valid/and or likely mechanism for effects on NZ native fish under environmentally realistic conditions.
I am starting to wonder if this gill blocking or clogging story isn’t the freshwater science equivalent of an urban legend :o)
Would anyone be kind enough to point me to the right direction?
Thanks,
Olivier

Black Mudfish and Lake Restoration

2010-11-18T21:04:59+12:00

Nick Ling take National Radio listeners on mudfish hunt. Plus Andrew Hayes talks about his family’s very successful Care Group Efforts on Lake Kaituna.

http://www.radio.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld

http://podcast.radio.co.nz/ocw/ocw-20101118-2106-Black_Mudfish_and_Lake_Restoration-048.mp3

Cheers Pete.