Koi Successfully Removed From Lakes And Rivers

31 August 2005

Koi Successfully Removed From Lakes And Rivers

New Zealand Waterways Restoration Ltd has successfully eradicated koi carp from small lakes and ponds in Northland and around Auckland and believes it could eradicate the noxious pest from New Zealand’s larger bodies of water.

The Department of Conservation said on National Radio that the koi carp was so well established in New Zealand that DOC’s policy was one of “containment” rather than “eradication”.

NZWR Director Gray Jamieson said that DOC has given up on its responsibility to protect the native fauna and flora in our waterways. “What an absolutely appalling attitude. New Zealand wouldn’t be the country it is today if we all said, ‘It can’t be done.’ My company has done it, albeit on a smaller scale, but we’ve proven that it is possible to eradicate koi from our waterways.”

Mr Jamieson said DOC’s record was abysmal. “I spoke with a DOC ranger recently who over a period of 20 months has killed only two koi.”

He added that it wasn’t helpful when DOC made accusations that New Zealand Waterways Restoration Ltd was primarily motivated by making money. “I want to make it clear: our motivation is to rid the environment of this pest and we can do this commercially.”

Mr Jamieson said that he ultimately wanted to control koi carp through his patented Pest Fish Management System, which uses targeted pellets to kill brood stock of koi carp and of which he was confident would eventually eradicate koi from our waters. In the meantime, New Zealand Waterways Restoration would reduce large numbers of koi through an effective netting regime.

“We have every intention to eradicate this pest from New Zealand. They are completely destroying our lakes and rivers and turning them into brown muddy wastes that choke our plants and kill our native fish,” Mr Jamieson said.

Mr Jamieson said claims by DOC that his quarantine holding ponds in Warkworth were not secure were farcical, since he had already received approval from the Ministries of Fisheries and the facility has held koi for 11 years.

Fact Sheet

26 percent of New Zealand couples are affected by fertility issues at some time in their reproductive lives.

Currently New Zealand couples are limited to either one or two publicly funded IVF treatment cycles.

If the first IVF cycle is successful, couples are not eligible for a second publicly funded cycle.

Funding is limited to those who achieve a certain number of “points” relating to a variety of criteria such as; cause of infertility,severity of infertility, duration of infertility, woman's age, levels of hormones,, , how many children the couple have etc

A number of New Zealanders who are eligible for a second cycle of fertility treatment and were promised a second cycle last July, have been discriminated against by being told they will not get a second cycle.

There is no limit to fertility treatment in Australia. There is also no limit in France. Great Britain is moving towards three cycles. In many countries infertility treatment is covered by medical insurance companies. All NZ medical insurance companies do not pay any money whatsoever towards fertility treatment.

An estimated 6000 children have been born in New Zealand through ART (artificial reproductive technology).

40 percent of infertility cases are linked to men, 40 percent to women and 20 percent joint cases.

About 1000 IVF treatment cycles are undertaken in New Zealand each year. About 300 babies result from this.

Annually New Zealand spends in excess of $300 million on all reproductive health care (including 18,000 terminations annually at a cost of $20 million) but just $5.7 million on fertility services. In terms of reproductive health funding, people with fertility issues, are unfairly discriminated against.

More than one million babies have been born world wide since the first baby, Louise Brown, was born 26 years ago in Britain using ART…..

In New Zealand, there are thousands of couples who would dearly love just one.

ENDS

© Scoop Media