How to help us protect inanga this season
Inanga are a New Zealand native aquatic species that is at risk and in decline. Every year there are fewer inanga in our streams and rivers. There are ways that you can help prevent losing them from our waterways.
Inanga prefer to live in bush-covered streams and rivers and in the last 100 years they have lost of huge amount of their habitat by people draining wetlands, artificially channelling small streams and removing vegetation beside streams.
Adult inanga need clean and healthy water to live in and breed. Pollution from the land reduces water quality in streams and barriers in waterways like dams also stop the inanga migrating.
Inanga have an unusual life cycle. They begin their life as eggs laid in vegetation beside streams in late summer and early autumn. When they hatch, they are carried downstream as larvae and spend 6 months at sea, in the spring they migrate back upstream as whitebait and then grow into adult fish.
Some easy ways you can help to stop the decline in numbers:
• Always follow the whitebait fishing regulations (Whitebait season starts in August in Hauraki)
• Keep your catch small and take only what you need
• Keep streams free from pest plant and fish
• Get involved and fence and plant your local streams
For more information on identifying and protecting a spawning site or even creating a new site visit www.doc.govt.nz... and search “protecting inanga” in the search bar at the top of the page.
Address: Hauraki Office - 3/366 Ngati Maru Highway PO Box 343, Thames 3540
⚠️ DOGS DIE IN HOT CARS. If you love them, don't leave them. ⚠️
It's a message we share time and time again, and this year, we're calling on you to help us spread that message further.
Did you know that calls to SPCA about dogs left inside hot cars made up a whopping 11% of all welfare calls last summer? This is a completely preventable issue, and one which is causing hundreds of dogs (often loved pets) to suffer.
Here are some quick facts to share with the dog owners in your life:
👉 The temperature inside a car can heat to over 50°C in less than 15 minutes.
👉 Parking in the shade and cracking windows does little to help on a warm day. Dogs rely on panting to keep cool, which they can't do in a hot car.
👉 This puts dogs at a high risk of heatstroke - a serious condition for dogs, with a mortality rate between 39%-50%.
👉 It is an offence under the Animal Welfare Act to leave a dog in a hot vehicle if they are showing signs of heat stress. You can be fined, and prosecuted.
SPCA has created downloadable resources to help you spread the message even further. Posters, a flyer, and a social media tile can be downloaded from our website here: www.spca.nz...
We encourage you to use these - and ask your local businesses to display the posters if they can. Flyers can be kept in your car and handed out as needed.
This is a community problem, and one we cannot solve alone. Help us to prevent more tragedies this summer by sharing this post.
On behalf of the animals - thank you ❤️
Worst Xmas ever?
There's a a lot of planning that goes into Christmas day and sometimes things just don't go to plan. But it can be a good thing - a family mishap or hilarious memory that you can laugh about in Christmases to come.
Whether you burnt the dinner or were stranded at an airport...
Share your Christmas mishaps below!