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Lake survey reveals worrying results 12:30 PM Thursday Feb 18, 2021 Niwa freshwater ecologist Mark Fenwick [second on right], with a kakahi in his hand, talking with some citizen scientists at Lake Wairarapa during Sunday’s monitoring. PHOTOS/PETE MONK WALT DICKSON With all of Lake Wairarapa to play in, it can be a lonely life for a juvenile kakahi, the native New Zealand freshwater mussel. While there are plenty of the adult mollusc living on the lake bed, juveniles are few, and it is cause for concern. This year’s annual kakahi monitoring survey day at Lake Domain Reserve in the Wairarapa recorded reasonable numbers of adult kakahi, but not a single juvenile. ....
It was a problem all around New Zealand with populations of kākahi getting older which would eventually get to a tipping point where there was no recruitment. “In some places they are becoming virtually extinct. There are viable adults, but they are not producing any babies - Lake Wairarapa is not there yet,” Fenwick said. Kākahi populations relied on host fish species to successfully breed and did not survive well on exotic fish common in these water bodies. The kākahi larva, called glochidia, are sneezed out by their mother and latch onto a passing fish using a hook at the top of their shell. ....
Tuesday, 16 February 2021, 4:40 pm With all of Lake Wairarapa to play in, it can be a lonely life for a juvenile kākahi, the native New Zealand freshwater mussel. While there are plenty of the adult mollusc living on the lake bed, juveniles are few, and it is cause for concern. This year’s annual kākahi monitoring survey day at Lake Domain Reserve in the Wairarapa recorded reasonable numbers of adult kākahi, but not a single juvenile. The kākahi monitoring programme, now in its seventh year, is one of a number of projects underway at Lake Wairarapa as part of the Wairarapa ....