Vote to pursue $20m research into lakes

Otago Daily Times

04-06-2025

Find the money now or face "astronomically expensive restoration efforts" for Otago's deepwater lakes later, a regional councillor says.
Cr Alexa Forbes, of Queenstown, said the Otago deep water lakes technical advisory group had clearly shown that research to support "proactive management" was far more cost-effective than remediation after degradation was evident.
Voting in favour of the most ambitious research proposal in front of Otago regional councillors was a "no-brainer", Cr Forbes said yesterday.
And councillors subsequently did vote unanimously in favour of pursuing an up to $20 million, 10-year monitoring and research effort for Lakes Wakatipu, Wānaka and Hāwea.
Cr Forbes praised the decades-long campaigning by University of Otago freshwater scientist Associate Prof Marc Schallenberg and Guardians of Lake Wānaka president Don Robertson, who she said had both been raising the issue of the lakes' health "for a long, long time".
Now, degradation of the lakes was "impossible to ignore", Cr Forbes said.
"We've got multiple interconnected environmental stressors with long-term consequences for biodiversity, for our economics, for our water quality, for our environmental health and for how we live among these lakes," she said.
"We can't move forward without evidence.
"We can't not afford it.
"The report makes the case for strategic research that can prevent astronomically expensive restoration efforts."
The technical advisory group's report to the Otago Regional Council's science and resilience committee yesterday said recent test results had highlighted "concerning patterns and the limitations of the existing monitoring programme".
Monitoring by the council showed algal biomass in the lakes had doubled in the past nine years.
Invasive zooplanktonic and phytoplanktonic species had gained a foothold.
And climate change signals had been observed in the region.
However, it was "not clear exactly" why or how this was happening, because the monitoring programme now in place was not able to identify the "stressor-response relationships" at play, which limited its usefulness, the group's report said.
Cr Elliot Weir said the $20m price tag for the work was "dwarfed by the economic and social and cultural and aesthetic benefits that those lakes bring".
"Let's set this direction today," they said.
"We do want to take care of these lakes and we'll invest quite heavily, if necessary, to fill those big knowledge gaps to do so."
Council chairwoman Cr Gretchen Robertson said other organisations needed to get involved in the work.
"We can't be the only organisation in this space.
"And actually, we can't afford $20m.
"But this is extremely important.
"These lakes, as Cr Weir has just outlined, are incredibly valued, not just in Otago, but nationally.
"They bring a huge amount to our country in terms of values Kiwis put on them — also international visitors.
"We can't have them deteriorating.
"Other lakes have got huge investment and research programmes that have been put into them once they've got to the point where they've deteriorated — we don't want to have that happening here."
At the councillors' request the technical advisory group will now develop a more detailed research and monitoring plan at the $20m funding level.
The group has also been asked to identify "funding opportunities" apart from the council to pay for the work.
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