Articles and Educational Links on Estuaries
ARTICLES
Efforts to Protect the future of Whitebait
By Adi Leng, Manawatu Estuary Trust (October 2006)
 The whitebaiters with their nets in the high tide of Whitebait Creek at Foxton Beach openly supported the volunteers planting along the north bank on Saturday. Providing vegetation shade alongside a stream, river or creek not only helps the habitat of the native fish in these streams but also supports the necessary conditions to assist their spawning in autumn. The eggs of the native fish, inanga, kaoro and the larger kokopu species go out to sea for a few months but return as juveniles to the stream in the spring. These are then known as whitebait and can be caught between the period August to November but hopefully lots pass by and become adults up stream otherwise the future of whitebaiting is “up the creek!”
The volunteers are associated with the Green Fleet programme, which is organised through Sustainable Business Network. Any business keen to reduce their environmental footprint can join this programme and receive support to be more transport efficient. It also promotes offsetting the impacts of fuels and vehicle use. Tree planting is recognised internationally as a practical short-term solution to offsetting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Therefore, Palmerston North business, Gas U Up, sponsored the planting of 23 native trees per vehicle per year to help reduce greenhouse gases and support New Zealand’s biodiversity. Whitebait Creek at the Manawatu Estuary is its local community project contribution.
 About sixty plants have gone along the riparian margin of Whitebait Creek and the Horowhenua District Council worked with the Manawatu Estuary Trust to enable this project. The shade from trees reduces the water temperature and provides leaf litter important for the habitat of macro-invertebrates and bacteria, the basic support for any stream. Mostly only specific bushy and smaller plants can cope with the strong salty weather down at the coast, as gardeners in Foxton Beach are well aware and to find trees for the project was a challenge. On the banks are now more cabbage trees, taupata or Coprosma repens and ngaio, Myoporum laetum, manuka and flax. The whitebaiters provided water from the creek for the plants and we just hope that the saltiness is something that the plants get used to quickly.
If you come out to Foxton Beach, you will know when it is high tide if you see the whitebaiters along the creek or streams near the estuary. That is also the best time to see the wading birds resting near the spit from Dawick Street lookout. This Saturday, afternoon 14th October, the Manawatu Estuary Trust is holding its “Welcome to the Birds” from 1.30pm. The public is most welcome to hear from the expert ornithologists or birders who will be present. Many of the birds you will see are also whitebaiters!
Have you seen the Royal Spoonbills yet?
By Joan Leckie, Manawatu Estuary Trust (August 2006)
 The magnificent Royal Spoonbills are very much in evidence at the Manawatu Estuary these winter days. Choose a calm sunny day and take a ‘tootle.’ It is well worth the trip to Foxton Beach to the River Estuary to have a look at the flock of about fifty birds, large and prominent. The Royal Spoonbills, also known as Kotuku-ngutupapa or Platalea regia, are a spectacular bird, quite large, with a long black bill shaped like a long-handled spoon. They are native to New Zealand, having self-colonised from Australia, and frequent estuaries along the Kapiti to Wanganui coast.
Check the times of the high tides in the newspapers before you set off because the best viewing is about 1 hour after high tide. At this time they are feeding in the shallow rivulets as they drain into the river across the mudflats. At the river end of Dawick Street, down past the Fire Station, there is a viewing platform, which is usually an excellent place to see the big birds.
If you would like a closer look, park your car and go out onto the sand spit through the access by the Foxton Beach Motor Camp, and walk towards the hills. The spoonbills will not allow you to go very close, so walk quietly, so as not to disturb them. The spoonbills mainly keep together in a flock walking and resting on the wide flats. When they feed they sweep their beaks from side to side in an arc in the receding waters, as they walk along, sifting out organisms, shellfish and small fish. High tide brings out all the many invertebrates from the mud and the Spoonbills make the most of this.
In the spring with their drooping breeding plumage at the back of their heads, they fly off to their breeding grounds on Kapiti Island, Marlborough and Okarito down the West Coast. So there are only a few left here in the warmer weather.
Spring at the Estuary
By Joan Leckie, Chair of the Manawatu Estuary Trust (Published in Guardian 14 September 2005)
With the change in seasons life at the Manawatu Estuary is due to change again. The good spring weather means that our visitors from Alaska and Siberia are due to arrive any day.
Back in the Arctic tundra the 24 hour sunshine has finished, the chicks have fledged and are practising for their long flight. Sometime soon, when the winds are from the right direction the Godwits will take off on their long, long flight south, about 12,000 kms. Flying non-stop for a whole week, they are due in New Zealand from about the third week in September.
Just how they navigate their way across the sea is still a mystery, we can only surmise.
So, if you are down at the beach and see these greyish fawn birds with very long beaks and long legs, just leave them in peace to get on with eating up the worms, grubs, and insects which live in the mud, and sleep off their weariness. During their week long flight the birds lose half their bodyweight, so they have a bit of catching up to do.
The keen bird-watchers will be down at the estuary with their telescopes checking for the coloured bands on the birds’ legs. From these bands they can tell where the birds have come from and, often, how long they have taken to get here.
It is time, too, for the little endangered native Wrybills to head south to the braided rivers of the Canterbury plains where they breed on the open shingle rivers. They do not build a nest, just rely on the fact that their eggs look like the stones on which they are laid. Predators are a big problem for them, stoats, rats, dogs are the enemies of these birds with the crooked beaks. They also have to watch out for floods, as the spring weather melts the snows in the mountains and fills the riverbeds. Happily a few survive the dangers of being born on the riverbed, and help to keep their numbers from declining too far.
So it is the ‘changing of the guards’ at the Estuary. The Asian birds arrive and the native birds depart. There are good stocks of food for them on the mudflats, which is why they come here.
The Manawatu Estuary Trust members had their annual spring clean-up of the rubbish left by the tides, and wind from when people visiting the beaches on Saturday 17th September. We have to keep our tourist venue attractive to our visitors. For more information check out www.environmentnetwork.org.nz/80.html
Spotting Spoonbills, Kotuku-ngutupapa
By Joan Leckie
(Published in the Guardian 12 May 2005)
May is a good time to visit the Manawatu Estuary. The migratory birds have all flown away to Siberia, and the New Zealand native water birds seek refuge there during the duck-shooting season.
 The most spectacular bird to see is the large white Royal Spoonbill, with its long black spoon-shaped bill. These majestic birds feed in the tidal shallows swinging their bills from side to side as they walk along and should be easily seen following the edge of the tide across the flats. The estuary has one of the largest flocks of spoonbills on the coast, sometimes up to 70 birds in a flock have been seen.
Another native is the Wrybill, a small grey bird with a white front and a black ‘necklace’. It is the only bird in the world which has a twisted beak, and this has evolved for feeding under stones in their breeding grounds on the stony riverbeds of Canterbury. A flock of Wrybills spends the winter at the Manawatu Estuary where they can often be seen running swiftly across the mudflats, or sleeping in groups on a sandbank with their heads under their wings. They are friendly little birds and will allow a person to come quite close provided they walk slowly and quietly.
At this time also, you can often see several kinds of ducks taking shelter around the reedy ponds, shoveler ducks, grey teal, paradise shelducks, mallards and more. The terns and the oyster catchers are camped up there as well.
A Bird Census is being carried out by members of the Manawatu Estuary Trust on Sunday 15th May, so that they can monitor the populations and tell whether they are increasing or decreasing in numbers. The bird watchers also look for coloured bands on the birds legs. These bands enable scientists to check the movements of the different birds, learn where they breed and how far they travel.
Members of the public are invited to come and help with the census, (or just watch the birds if they wish). A pair of binoculars makes viewing a bit easier. Meet at the Holben Parade picnic ground at Foxton Beach at 12.30pm to organise the counting before high tide at 2 pm. There will be a ‘cuppa’ available at 3 pm when counting is finished. Contact Judith Tyler at (06)368-1489, or Joan Leckie at (06)368-1277 for more details.
The Godwits Have Arrived.
By Adie Leng
(Published in the Evening Standard and Guardian - 21st and 23rd September, 2004)
Last week in Christchurch they rang the Cathedral bells to celebrate the arrival of the Bar-tailed godwit or Kuaka, Limosa lapponica to the Heathcote estuary. Here, although the godwit numbers are small (300+ last year), their arrival at our local Manawatu River estuary at Foxton is also worthy of our recognition. So what makes them so special that bells are rung in their honour?
 The godwit is a migratory bird that makes an annual flight of 11,000 kilometres, the longest non-stop bird migration in the world, from the western Alaskan Arctic breeding grounds to New Zealand and this feat is recognised as one of the ‘great wonders of the world’.
Photo by Brian Tyler
The migratory birds come here to various estuaries to “winter over” on our feeding grounds and most birds are found in the Firth of Thames. The Ornithological Society of New Zealand reports that between 85,000 to over 100,000 Bar-tailed godwits visit New Zealand annually with ten percent of these birds remaining to winter over (our winter) here in New Zealand. It is presumed that these are juveniles as few are in breeding plumage, which is the fat and rich colour appearance the godwits develop before they leave New Zealand to return north in the following March.
But every mid-September they arrive looking like feathers and bones, very tired and hungry. The Bar-tailed godwit is a long-legged wading bird with a long upturned bill and as it is a larger bird is quite distinctive.
So how do they do it? As reported in the New Scientist, “the birds go on a binge before their long haul flights until up to 55 per cent of their weight is fat and it is thought they reshuffle proteins in their bodies before they set out to allow them to reduce the size and weight of their food-processing organs.”
We can only wonder what drove this extraordinary adaptation and how long this migration has been occurring. There is a concern that increasing pollution and dwindling size of the estuarine habitat internationally will have an effect on the future of this annual ritual.
Make an opportunity to visit the estuary to see the newly arrived and amazing godwits and hear a talk by Rachel Keedwell on an internal migratory bird, the rare Black-fronted tern, at the Manawatu Estuary Trust’s AGM this Saturday, 25th September, Pals building, Foxton Beach at 2pm. For more information contact Joan, (06) 368 1277.
Farewell to the Birds
By Joan Leckie
(Published in the Guardian March 9th 2005)
The godwits at Manawatu Estuary are getting itchy feet. The days here are starting to draw in so they are getting clucky and donning their best breeding plumage with red/tan chests ready to set out on their long journey to Alaska and Siberia back to their breeding grounds. All summer they have fed on the worms and crabs in the mud flats gaining lots of weight to carry them over this long journey.
 The godwits follow the Eastern Flyway, over Australia and the Philippines, up over China and Korea, to Siberia or Alaska, stopping occasionally at an estuary on the way. Many of the birds carry bands on their legs and bird enthusiasts in the North can tell which of the arrivals are from New Zealand. Similarly, many birds that arrive here in the spring have been banded in China, Siberia or Alaska so bird enthusiasts can tell by the colour of the bands where they have come from.
The Manawatu Estuary Trust is holding a “Farewell to the Birds” on Saturday morning 12th March from 10.30am and invites the public to view the waders before they leave on their migration flight. There will be telescopes out on the sandbank, with experts to explain the birds to anyone who wishes to have a good look at the birds in their finery.
Meet at the picnic area on Holben Parade, Foxton Beach Trust members will guide you to see these godwits. Lunch will be available in the form of a sausage sizzle.
 If you want more information on the different birds or wildlife and their habitats at the Estuary, the Trust has produced a CD Rom entitled “Exploring the Manawatu Estuary,” which is proving very popular with the general public as well as with schools. Being the only estuary in the southern half of the North Island, the Manawatu River Estuary is an important place to be protected for its wildlife values. The CD Rom explores all aspects of this Estuary yet at the same time the same values could apply to several other estuaries in New Zealand.
This CD Rom will be available at the Farewell Function for sale at $30 each or can be obtained by sending a cheque to the Manawatu Estuary Trust, PO Box 19, Levin. For more information contact Joan on 06 368 1277.
What’s in a name??
Whitebait or rare native fish?
By Adie Leng (Published in the Guardian 9 September, 2004)
 It is that time of year when keen ‘whitebaiters” follow the tradition of putting down nets into streams and rivers around our region to catch whitebait. Those little white juvenile fish that really want to swim back upstream to make a wetland or upland stream their home. Whitebait is the name of the “food” and putting them into fritters is a national, expensive delicacy, especially at last year’s prices of $100 a kilogram.
Thinking of these little fish as just whitebait is like calling the kiwi, kakapo, black robin and kokako just birds. We know how special these birds are and most New Zealanders want to see them protected and their numbers grow. It is not the same for the native fish because most people don’t know about them and continue to accept the term whitebait, which doesn’t show any appreciation that they can consist of up to five species of mostly rare native fish. How many know the species - inanga, banded kokopu, koaro, the shortjaw kokopu and the giant kokopu?
Photo courtesy of Department of Conservation.
The eggs of these native fish are spawned amongst plants along river and stream banks and their hatched eggs flushed out to sea during a high tide. These fish are diadromous in that they have a marine life stage where the larvae grow out at sea before making their way back upstream as juveniles to hopefully reach their rightful home to live and breed.
The regular whitebaiters follow sustainable practices and ensure that their well-placed nets follow the Department of Conservation regulations because they want their children to be able to enjoy whitebaiting in the future. It is a privilege to have this resource and it is a shame when some people override sustainable practices for short-term gains.
A major problem for our native fish is the decreased number of habitats, wetlands and clean or bush straddled streams, especially for spawning. Less than 20% of those ‘whitebait’ that pass the nets are known to reach adulthood. Flooding lessens the numbers of native fish even reaching the juvenile stage.
It is important for us all to make an effort to protect or restore the life sustaining force of our local streams and catchments so that the life cycles of these native fish can continue. Contact Fish and Game, DOC or the Regional Council for support to plant riparian strips or to fence off streams and wetlands.
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