Kakahi Monitoring at Lake Wairarapa
The status and health of the kākahi (freshwater mussel) population of Lake Wairarapa is being monitored. The condition of this native freshwater mussel helps us understand the health of the wider ecosystem.
 Volunteers measuring kākahi length |
 Comparing shell erosion |
What's special about kākahi?
- they filter sediment out of the water, so help clean it
- their life cycle includes time spent on the gills of native fish
- they are a Māori food source and the shells were used as a cutting tool
- some have been estimated to be over 50 years old
- there is little information about the global decline of freshwater mussel species
How are we monitoring them?
The monitoring involves two sites being surveyed on alternate years.
The first survey was carried out on the northern lake shore at Lake Domain Reserve in March 2015. The second survey was on the western side of Lake Wairarapa in February 2016.
The results and methodology are in the reports for each year.
Kākahi Monitoring Report 2015 (PDF, 3.5MB)
Kākahi Monitoring Report 2016 (PDF, 3.0MB)
Kākahi Monitoring Report 2017 (PDF, 1.3MB)
Kākahi Monitoring Report 2018 (PDF, 2MB)
Preliminary results show:
- The population at each site are mostly represented by adult kākahi
- Some 'Auckland' species of kākahi were found at the northern shore site whereas only the 'common' species was at the western shore site.
How can you help?
This important kākahi monitoring work depends on the support of volunteers to collect, measure and record details. If you are keen to get involved in future surveys, please email biodiversity@gw.govt.nz
More informationContent on this page was last updated: 05/09/2018 4:14pm