Whitebait Connection Northland teamed up with the Patuharakeke Te Iwi Trust Board, Takahiwai Marae, Uri/Landowners of Paki and Maki Pirihi, David Lourie to plant a second section of this awa with NZ natives from our nursery at He Kākano. The hard working crew from Barker and Associates had traveled from offices all around Aotearoa to get stuck into getting 1200 native trees into the ground as part of this mauri restoring riparian planting. 

This section of the planting connects the mature native forest upstream to the īnanga spawning habitat downstream. It will provide more habitat for native freshwater fish like īnanga, banded kokopu, bullies and tuna, stabilise the stream banks and shade the small stream. During an īnanga egg search in June, Kim Jones discovered a patch of īnanga eggs in the long grass at the spawning site which is a huge success for the project and all the hard work that has happened to date.

A big thank you to all that participated in our last activity for our Critter Challenge Series, which was designing your dream stream. We have loved seeing all your awesome submissions throughout this series and we hope you continue to spread awareness for our native freshwater critters.

We would like you to get creative and stretch your imaginations for our last activity for the Critter Challenge series. We challenge you to design your dream stream! Extra points for out of the box designs that create a healthy and safe environment for our precious freshwater taonga. You can use whatever medium you like, skies the limit.

Thank you to all of those who participated in our Critter Challenge Quiz. It was a tight race for the top spots! We hope you enjoyed testing your freshwater knowledge and learning something new in the process.

Test your New Zealand freshwater knowledge and be in with a chance to win some cool prizes! Follow the link below to take part in our freshwater quiz.

Thank you all so much for submitting your wonderful creations and helping to spread awareness for our awesome native freshwater critters. 

Congratulations to the week one Critter Challenge winners 

It's competition time! 

Over the next three weeks we will be running a competition to get you learning about our amazing freshwater environments and what lives there! This week's activity is our 'Critter of the Day' colouring page.

All delivery and events are  currently postponed until further noitice as we are in ALERT LEVEL 4. 

The recent global COVID-19 pandemic has shaken our society’s fabric to its core and we are facing huge social and economic challenges as we navigate this new world.  Massive behaviour change has been forced upon us and stripped many simple freedoms that were once taken for granted. New Zealanders have shown remarkable resilience and adaptability through this challenging time.  

When Lauren Geer noticed rubbish flowing through her local river, she knew she needed to find a solution.

The Te Pahu School student has invented a rubbish collector, The Rubbish Taniwha, which has won three awards at the NIWA Waikato Science and Technology Fair.

Northland has the highest rate of volunteering in New Zealand. Around 37 per cent of the adult population volunteer for about four hours per week on average, according to Volunteering Northland. Today we introduce you to one of our selfless volunteers.

Jordan MacDonald probably didn't expect running a native plant nursery would lead to learning a new language.

2020 heralds hope and anticipation for a Takahiwai stream thanks to hundreds of volunteers and locals who have helped Whitebait Connection (WBC) breathe new life into the waterway.  

It is widely known that native fish populations in New Zealand are in decline, which is partially due to the damage we have done to the spawning habitat of īnanga.  This species makes up over 90% of the whitebait catch, is an important food source for many creatures (incuding us), and can act as an important indicator of waterway health.  Unfortunately, the habitat needed for their eggs to survive is often damaged or absent.  Such is the case for the Takahiwai Stream…or is it?

For the landowners along Duck Creek, restoring the stream to its former glory has been a labour of love. First, the mature pine trees along the banks were removed, then native seedlings planted and other weed species managed. The icing on the cake was to remediate a perched, box culvert on the stream that was preventing migratory native fish from accessing wetland habitat upstream.

The landowners made two previous attempts to create fish passage up the culvert but high flows during flood events destroyed their hard work.  Thanks to funding from Auckland Council Healthy Waters, and through the Whitebait Habitat Restoration Project managed by the Whitebait Connection, this barrier has now been fixed.