I wonder where all that toxic aluminium could come from.
I’m sure Dane Wigington could explain
'Zombie fish' highlighting pollution concerns with Northland's longest river
The Northern Wairoa River, seen here flowing through Dargaville, is Northland's longest river. Photo: Peter de Graaf/RNZ
When Sam Erickson started hooking one sickly snapper after another he knew something was seriously wrong.
Around November last year the Dargaville stay-at-home dad noticed a change in the fish he pulled out of the Northern Wairoa River.
"We didn't think too much of them, until we started catching a lot of them. Probably eight out of 10 snapper we were pulling in were diseased."
Erickson was the first to coin the term 'zombie fish', a name that's caught on everywhere the hollow-eyed, lethargic fish have been caught.
Dargaville fisherman Sam Erickson came up with the name "zombie fish". Photo: Peter de Graaf/RNZ
"They very much look like zombies. The first sign is they start losing all that gel around their eyes, so a cavity opens up around their eyeballs. Their eyes start developing cataracts and there's often a bloodshot line in there, which is a sign of stress."
While the cause of zombie fish is not yet known, the phenomenon has put a spotlight on Northland's longest river - and what that reveals isn't pretty.
A 2020 report by the Northland Regional Council described water quality in the river as "particularly poor", with standards breached for almost every pollutant, including nitrates, ammonia and phosphorus.
The river was also high in E. coli, a type of bacteria associated with sewage, and especially afflicted by sediment.
The Northern Wairoa is sometimes called the upside-down river, because its permanently brown colour makes it look like the muddy riverbed is on top.
Dargaville Ratepayers and Residents Association chairwoman Rose Dixon. Photo: Peter de Graaf/RNZ
Rose Dixon, chairwoman of the Dargaville Ratepayers and Residents Association, said she first heard about zombie fish at the group's inaugural meeting earlier this year.
"One of the blokes at the meeting, he was fisherman, he mentioned he'd been catching zombie fish. And then another bloke piped up and said, 'I've been catching zombie fish too'. And I thought to myself, 'holy heck, what's going on?'."
Dixon encouraged Erickson to go public with his concerns about the fish he was catching, which prompted an Auckland water testing business to offer free tests of the Northern Wairoa at various sites around Dargaville.
High levels of aluminium
Those tests revealed - apart from the usual pollutants - surprisingly high levels of aluminium in the water, far above the levels recommended by the Australia and New Zealand Environment and Conservation Council for the health of fish and aquatic plants.
The results were a surprise because the Northland Regional Council does not routinely test for aluminium, which is not expected at such high levels in a rural waterways.
The council's own follow-up tests detected even higher levels of the metal.
It was not clear why there were such high levels of aluminium in the river, though it did occur naturally in Kaipara soils and was commonly used to clarify water, for example in treatment plants or earthworks settling ponds.
Snow Tane, general manager of Te Roroa Development Group. Photo: Peter de Graaf/RNZ
Snow Tane, general manager of Te Roroa Development Group, said iwi had long been concerned about water quality in the awa.
"The main reason is around health and well-being. There are a lot of things associated with the mauri [life force] of the river, and it's a mahinga kai - that means our people have traditionally gone to the river and got food resources from it. In particular fish, and further down you get oysters and mussels."
Tane said long-standing concerns included the large volumes of sediment in the river and the discharge of untreated waste water, for example during Cyclone Gabrielle.
He said a plan was needed, and soon.
"That plan needs to be around understanding where it's coming from, and how can we put mitigation and processes in place to not only manage it, but to find ways to stop it from occurring."
Dixon said there was hope for an improvement in the river's sediment problem, with Kaipara Moana Remediation - New Zealand's biggest harbour restoration project - working to clean up the water flowing into the Northern Wairoa and the Kaipara Harbour.
The project had so far overseen the planting of almost two million trees and the more than 800km of fencing to keep stock out of waterways.
That, would, however take time to make a difference.
Dixon said there were also problems with the town's wastewater treatment plant, which regularly breached its consent conditions.
She believed the plant should be upgraded but that could come at huge cost, beyond the means of Dargaville's small ratepayer base.
She said central government assistance could be needed both to fix the town's sewage plant and to address the river's high aluminium levels.
"When you think about the fact that more than 90 percent of the west coast's snapper spawns here in our river, maybe it's an issue of national significance and the government perhaps needs to step in and look at what they can do to help."
'It's crap'
Photo: Peter de Graaf/RNZ
Erickson was blunt when asked about the state of the river.
"It's crap. We crap into it - that's where all our septic goes."
However, the importance of the river to local people was illustrated by a Nathan, a young Dargaville builder, who stopped to talk after overhearing RNZ conducting an interview about the Northern Wairoa.
He said it was much more than just a wide, muddy waterway.
"If you ask anyone who lives or was raised around this area, they'll say that the river is part of their life. Growing up here, you're either fishing or spending time on the water on the beaches. It becomes part of your blood."
Northern region medical officer of health Dr David Sinclair recommended people avoided swimming or gathering food at the testing locations on the Northern Wairoa River, until the relevant agencies had finished assessing the water.
"The main direct risk to people remains the level of bacteria, such as E coli in the water, which can cause gastroenteritis and skin and eye infections, and affect aquatic plants and animals which are part of the food chain," he said.
Any snapper caught in the area with "milky white" or "mushy" flesh should be reported to the MPI hotline 0800 80 99 66.
Sinclair was planning to meet Dargaville iwi and residents in coming weeks to hear their concerns first-hand.
Fish so sick they are called zombies found from Paekākāriki to Northland
Paekākāriki is one of the areas where snapper with cataracts, kidney inflammation, and fibrosis in the livers were consistently observed. Photo / NZME
Snapper so sick they are described as “zombies” are being found around the North Island, but the cause of the illness is still unclear.
Fisheries New Zealand continues to run tests and will now test sick fish for aluminium, after high levels of aluminium were discovered in the northern Wairoa River.
Dargaville recreational fisherman Sam Erickson coined the term “zombie fish” after first catching sick snapper in Kaipara Harbour near Ruawai in April.
He described the fish as looking like the walking dead, with cloudy and bloodshot eyes that were sunken in the face, missing flesh and bones sticking out, a lack of the normal mucus layer and overall lethargy.
The Ministry for Primary Industries started investigating and encouraged people to report unwell fish to Fisheries NZ 0800-80-99-66. It found fish with the same cloudy-eye symptoms caught from Northland to the Wellington region.
Biosecurity New Zealand tested multiple snapper samples at its animal health laboratory and has not found any exotic or emerging diseases in the sick fish, Fisheries NZ acting director science and information Rich Ford said.
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“Cataracts in the eyes, inflammation of the kidneys and fibrosis in the livers was consistently observed from fish received from Kaipara Harbour, Raglan, Whangārei Harbour and Paekākāriki,” he said.
Fisheries NZ contracted the Cawthron Institute to test affected snapper for the most common food-borne pathogens and contaminants, and to date has not found any cause for concern.
Until the testing is finished, it is not recommended to eat snapper with the symptoms, Ford said.
The snapper will now also be tested for aluminium - to see if they have higher levels than normal - after high levels of aluminium were discovered in the northern Wairoa River near Dargaville through voluntary water testing.
The tests by Cannalytic Profiling found aluminium levels more than 30 times the Australasian freshwater and marine guidelines at Dargaville Wharf and Tirarau Stream.
Ford said while environmental pollution can cause cataracts in fish, Fisheries NZ doesn’t have information on whether aluminium specifically can cause the symptoms observed.
New Zealand Food Safety is carrying out a risk assessment for consumers, based on the levels of aluminium detected in the fish and likely exposure through their diet, Ford said.
If there is a food safety risk, appropriate measures will be put in place. A high level of aluminium in the environment does not automatically mean a food safety risk, he said.
Aluminium in water could be natural, council says
Water testing of aluminium levels in the northern Wairoa River is continuing, as the aluminium levels discovered are potentially toxic for fish and other aquatic creatures.
The Northland Regional Council does not routinely test for aluminium as it is not usually a concern in Northland’s rural landscape.
However, it collected some sediment and water samples on July 24 and staff are now assessing the results, Colin Dall, group manager regulatory services, said.
The regional council has also received advice from Bob Cathcart, a Northland soils expert, who said the high aluminium levels found in the samples may be natural, as some of the soils in in the northern Wairoa catchment are known to contain naturally high levels of aluminium, Dall said.
Testing by Kaipara District Council shows the high levels of aluminium is not coming from its wastewater treatment plants along the river, a spokesperson said.
The district council tested on July 18 and found aluminium levels of 0.19mg/litre by the Dargaville wastewater treatment plant and 1.0mg/litre near the Te Kopuru wastewater treatment plant, much lower than the Dargaville Wharf result of 3.25mg/litre.
Additional samples will be run over coming weeks, due to the nature of the concerns about the high levels, the spokesperson said.
The Dargaville Ratepayers and Residents Association also plans to collect its own samples from the river, for Cannalytic Profiling to test.
Chairperson Rose Dixon said the levels of aluminium found are alarming and further testing is crucial.
Members of the association plan to collect about 50 samples from the northern Wairoa and its tributaries on Saturday, after a trip planned for August 3 had to be postponed due to bad weather.
Call ministry if you catch sick fish
The ministry said it currently has enough samples of snapper with the cloudy-eye symptoms from Kaipara Harbour, but is interested in samples of snapper from other areas or other species of fish from the harbour with similar symptoms, Ford said.
“We encourage all fishers who catch a fish that displays illness to call us on 0800-80-99-66. We’ll talk to them about the fish they have caught and determine if they should send a sample through to us.”
These fish should be kept chilled, not frozen and need to be sent to the laboratory for testing within 24 hours, he said.
I wonder if there is any relation to the aluminium being detected at high levels in the alleged toxic chemical trails that are being observed all around the world.
Please let me know if they publish Fluoride levels in the water and fish.
Fluoride increases solubility of Aluminium. Cataract is caused by Fluoride and Endotoxin from E coli.