On as well as in Lake Karapiro: NZBI 2022 Scholarship
Category: National. Posted: 24 January 2023
A keenness to protect Lake Karapiro, for more than one reason, has earned Waikato student Ashton Reiser one of two 2022 NZBI Scholarships made this year.
In 2023 Ashton will begin a master’s thesis looking at the invasive fish community in Lake Karapiro, in the Waikato. Ashton’s goal is to assess the distribution, abundance and environmental impact that the invasive fish are having on Lake Karapiro’s ecosystem.
He has more than just a passing interest in the welfare of the lake as he explains:
“As a high-performance canoe racer, I paddle on the lake up to twice a day and I get to experience first-hand how special the lake is, the need to protect it and why we need to understand more about it. Invasive fish are becoming a significant, spreading problem in the Waikato, most notably goldfish, koi carp, catfish and rudd. They are known to exclude native fish populations and significantly decrease the water quality of the watercourses that they invade.
My hope is that this research will contribute to the wider invasive fish investigations that are going on along the length of the Waikato River. I have selected Lake Karapiro as my study site for its significance as the lowermost dam on the Waikato River as well as due to the special relationship that I have with the lake.
This is especially important on Lake Karapiro as it hosts a range of significant native fish populations, a multi-million dollar recreational and tourist industry and it supplies the drinking water for a large population of people in the Waikato. My hypothesis is that the spread of these invasive fish is only going to get worse as climate change increases, warming the ambient temperature of the water, and allowing these fish to spread further south.”
Ashton is aiming to reach the Paris 2024 Olympic Games for New Zealand in Canoe Sprint.
I am very grateful and humbled to be awarded the NZBI scholarship for 2023. This scholarship will be pivotal in making my thesis project a success as the contacts and the financial support that come with this award will be critical in helping me to assess the most efficient, accurate and economically viable way to detect pest fish species in lakes in NZ. The end goal of my research is to support biosecurity in NZ and around the world to detect aquatic pest species early and thus limit their spread and the potential damage that they can cause to the environment, the economy and to local communities. Environmental DNA sampling is not cheap so I am very thankful to the NZBI for helping me out with some of my fieldwork expenses.
The purpose of the scholarship is to provide funds to assist with an individual’s research to improve knowledge in the field of biosecurity.
The Selection Committee considered the value of the research to furthering New Zealand’s biosecurity interests and its practical relevance to the aims of the NZ Biosecurity Institute.