LEARNZ Freshwater Ecology Taupo podcast 1 of 3

The following questions from NZ schools are answered by freshwater ecologists: 1. What is the most common freshwater fish in Lake Taupo? Have their numbers there been stable over the last 150 years? 2. Is your (native/endemic) kowaro in Lake Taupo the same as the endangered Canterbury mudfish that shows up first on a web search? 3. Where is the best place to find animals for studying? 4. Why around taupo river you can only fly fish and not spin? 5. Our main focus is to put a plan into action i.e what can we do to make sure our wai remains abundant and clean? e.g clean up our wai (water/river/lake) 6. What would happen if we stopped being sustainable? 7. Which of the five whitebait species are endangered and do you think fishing for whitebait is sustainable? 8. Why do you need an extra fishing license for taupo area, if you already have a fishing license? 9. You are not allowed to buy and sell trout is that right? Perhaps should be the same, we were wondering the same about whitebaiting. 10. What is the weirdest thing you have found in a river? 11. What is fishing licence money used for? Is it different in your area compared to other parts of NZ. More at https://www.learnz.org.nz/freshwaterecology184/connect-with-experts