NewsNo Dam on the Nevis River - Gollum Protected

The New Zealand and Otago Fish & Game Councils applied to extend the protection afforded by the WCO to include Gollum galaxiid and other values, and to introduce a prohibition on damming. A Special Tribunal has decided that the WCO should be amended to ban damming to protect the native fish specifically . The Tribunal found that a dam impoundment would elevate the threat to Gollum posed by predators, and there was considerable doubt that predator proof barriers would be effective to contain predators. If they failed it could lead to a long term unintended disastrous effect on the rare and outstanding Gollum species. Therefore a prohibition on damming was considered appropriate.

Maree Baker, Jackie St John and Blake Holgate of Anderson Lloyd's Resource Management team acted on the Water Conservation Order amendment application.