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Christchurch

Fishing & Casting Club

Inc. (The Friendly Bunch) www.cfcc.co.nz

President Secretary Treasurer

Vacant Shirley Salisbury John O’Connell 03 322 8218 021 507576

Next Meeting

Thurs 7th

February

7:30pm

At Cotswold Preschool

Hall,

37 Colesbury St,

Bishopdale

Our speaker to start the year off is Mike Bates. Mike is a Taxidermist and former guide in the region. Mike will be talking about the ups and downs of the North Canterbury Fisheries as well as answering any questions you may have.

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The club newsletter can be used to advertise a trade or service or special skill you have to offer. The advertisement is a standard half-page, and costs $5.00 per advertisement per month. You must be a financial member to advertise in this Newsletter.

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Fisherman's Loft for all your Fishing Requirements

Support the sponsor of our Raffle

359 Lincoln Road, over the railway line Phone now 3383131

www.fishermansloft.co.nz

Message from the Editor

Well it’s been a busy festive period with my in-laws visiting we went in search of some of fish the odd trip here and there kayak out too, but alass no luck for either my self, my son or my father-in-law although Seth did lose a couple through impatience. But we must all learn and I spent a chunk of time trying a new rig my father-in -law developed so more time spent messing with line than in the water. Hopefully most

members have managed to get out and wet a line and I have been sent some photos which I have popped in throughout the newsletter. My apologies as I will explain in the accompanying email my time is eroding so I’m not managing to devote as much attention to this as I have previously and it deserves, however I am hoping that from April forward that may improve. I will not be there on Thursday but hopefully there will be a few stories shared by those who have been out and as I write this I am waiting for the first members salmon pic of the season (Sharon, Richard, Ben?) Tight lines

Gavin

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A message from the committee Well Christmas has been and gone and my hasn’t it been hot? This will not help the fish in smaller lakes although it gets the cicadas nice and active which are an easy throw down even for the rookie fly fisherman as they splash pretty hard on the water, so you can’t go wrong. The nor-westers have also pushed a lot of water down the braided rivers making the conditions beautiful for the salmon runs and we have seen many reports of salmon being caught. The warm weather and heaps of silveries also means there’s the opportunity of a Kahwhai or two at a beach or river mouth and if in the

surf you never know what may be chasing the kahwhai… We have the lake Taylor trip and a salmon session on the horizon so please get your names down if interested, the lake Taylor trip in particular is a nice one at a welcoming location with many fishing options open to members. Hopefully this year we can get out and about and share what we have learned with each other in the hope of getting into big fish. Speaking of big fish Della got out to Lake Argyle and landed this monster of a rainbow hen hopefully we’ll find out how on Thursday

Tight Lines and a Happy New Year The Committee

CHRISTCHURCH FISHING & CASTING CLUB (INC)

COMMITTEE

President

Vacant Vice President Dave De Montalk - daveandlinda@clear.net.nz 942-2339 / 0272845688 Treasurer John O’Connell- john@bigpicturenz.com 021-507576 Secretary Shirley Salisbury - shirley_salisbury@hotmail.com 322-8218 / 0211415559

Editor Gavin Atkinson - gav_atkinson@hotmail.com 0223524717

Committee John O’Connell- john@bigpicturenz.com 021-507576

Bryce Nicholson – Rex Gibson – rnjg@xtra.co.nz 358-2595 / 0211280404

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CLUB EVENTS 2017/2018

Date Event Contact Details

February 9th/10th (TBC) Salmon fishing Rex Gibson

8th – 10th Mar Lake Taylor Trip John Collins

12th -14th April Lake Benmore (Ahuriri Arm) Shirley Salisbury

This time of year there are several Surfcasting competitions for those

interested I have added a few details below.

The bait is over.. Banks Peninsula Young Farmers' Surf Casting Competition for 2019 is finally here! It's a great oppor-tuna-ty to dip your fins and win some kraken prizes.

Sunday 24th Feb @ 06:45 Birdlings flat register on the day

Categories include: * Biggest Fish (Adult) * Biggest Fish (Kids) * Most Variety * Smallest Fish * Ugliest Fish

So as I occasionally do I flicked through the magazine archives and found the following article written by Frank Cartwright some 9 years ago and I find his closing argument is as applicable now as it was then? - Ed

Troubled Times for Trout Ahead?

Alarm bells will be sounding for trout anglers and more

particularly Fish & Game NZ following news media releases during

mid January which stated that Federated Farmers are considering

making representation to government to legalise commercial

farming and sale of trout.

To successfully farm trout up to marketable size, substantial

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volumes of clean water would need to be sourced from rivers,

lakes or springs. But freshwater resources are rapidly diminishing,

casualties of insatiable agricultural and industrial demand. ‘Water

theft’ has developed to such a degree that in Canterbury for

example, consents have been granted for water abstraction

greater than the maximum volume available - apparently defying

logic. Further serious over-allocation of finite resources will only

be exacerbated if trout farming becomes a reality but with that

scenario also comes the spectre of commercial poaching. Some

poaching does exist but is mainly confined to opportunistic

individuals and dealt with by Fish & Game but if the Fed’s

application were successful, poaching and black market

trafficking would almost certainly decimate freshwater fisheries.

Curiously, the best protection to wild fisheries comes not only from

Fish & Game vigilance but also through having long ago afforded

trout safeguards by describing them a non-commercial species, all

thanks to civic wisdom and foresight following releases of brown

trout into streams in and around Dunedin in 1869.

Those responsible for the releases were well acquainted with

brown trout fisheries in Imperial England and their desire was that

New Zealanders would be free of elitist constraints, water

ownership and other impediments. However, anecdotal angler

statements confirm that some NZ farmers have for several years

been charging anglers access fees. Monetary opportunism such

as this may well be enhanced by the introduction of commercial

trout farming ventures.

Substantial tourist revenue from trout fishing earns the government

valuable foreign exchange but this too could be jeopardised if the

spectre of commercial farming becomes fact. If farming did

succeed, might it mean a welcome reduction in dirty dairying?

How ironic if offending farmers were obliged to clean up their act

to cash in on a clean green eco operation.

The government appears to be moving cautiously towards some

form of involvement with what has traditionally been the preserve

of Acclimatisation Societies and more recently Fish & Game NZ.

Consider the Department of Internal Affairs refusal to let Fish &

Game increase the cost of licences to what Fish & Game applied

for - the first time ever that a freshwater fisheries governing body

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has been over-ruled. Political interference or meddling with

efficient self-regulatory management organisations such as Fish &

Game NZ, is viewed with a sense of foreboding that big business

will shove ethics aside in the drive for big bucks.

Political lobbying will inevitably be called for. Will you be

prepared to fight for our wild fisheries?

Frank Cartwright

14/1/10

Nitrates; today’s Hemlock? On a recent dull spring morning a small group of like-minded folk met in my garage. No we weren’t plotting “the revolution”; or were we? You decide. The bench had been cleared and Victoria University’s newest scientist recruit, Dr Mike Joy, led us through the process of determining nitrate levels in bore water samples. The study was commissioned, commendably, by Fish & Game NZ. Left: Dr Mike Joy Right: The portable Nico real-time nitrate test unit

Mike had previously alerted me, another executive member of the NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers, Fish & Game NZ HQ, and the news media, of a study published in the International Journal of Cancer, relating to nitrate concentrations and a significant health issue for New Zealanders; colorectal cancer (often referred to as bowel cancer). New Zealand has one of the highest colorectal cancer (CRC) rates in the world. The question is “Why?” CRC is the second highest cause of cancer death in New Zealand. In 2011, 3030 people were diagnosed with CRC and 1191 died from the disease. That rate has continued to grow since then. In New Zealand, CRC causes as many deaths each year as breast and prostate cancers combined .It also kills more than suicides and the road toll combined. Our eclectic group around the garage bench included a Fish & Game staff member, a sculptor and environmentalist, a Fish & Game councillor (also a farmer), a retired vet with aquiculture degree qualifications, and yours truly. My post graduate studies were in Vertebrate Ecology and Parasitology. We all share a commitment to improving the quality of our water resources. The work was taken very seriously. We had collected or received 114 samples of bore (drinking) water from across Northern Canterbury (Loburn to Ashburton, Christchurch to Methven), and more were dropped off during the morning. Mike had brought and set up a portable apparatus (a Nico real-time test unit) for measuring nitrate levels. The Danes had become concerned at their high levels of CRC some years ago. It was at a similar rate to ours! Scientists from Aarhus University set about conducting a massive study. So, what did it find? Jörg Schullehner, PhD, with a team from the Department of Public Health at the university, said in a press release. “Our study shows that people who were exposed to the highest concentration of nitrate in drinking water (above 9.3 mg per litre of water) had a 15% greater risk of getting CRC compared to those who had least exposure (less than 1.3 mg per litre of water).”

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Schullehner and colleagues assessed nitrate exposure among 2.7 million adults based on 200,000 drinking water analyses from 1978 to 2011, and included 1.7 million individuals with the highest exposure levels in their main analysis. That was a very robust study. These CRC risks remained significant even at low levels of nitrate deemed acceptable by current drinking water standards. “The current drinking water standard is 50 mg nitrate per litre of water, but the increased risk of cancer could already be seen at concentrations greater than approximately 4 mg nitrate per litre of water,” Schullehner stated. In Denmark “nitrate concentrations are low in the majority of public waterworks”, Schullehner added “Today, the problem is mainly concentrated in the small private wells, as well as places with high nitrate leaching and where the local soil and geological conditions mean that nitrate can more easily be leached to the groundwater”. This parallels New Zealand’s intensive dairying areas. Left: Sample testing Right: Recording

Each sample was tested and the results tabulated. Fifty-eight of the 114 registered readings were above the 0.87mg of nitrate-nitrogen per litre current threshold for potentially increased cancer risk; almost exactly half (50.8%). Aarhus University gave 3.8mg/L as the “lethal” point. Many of our Canterbury’s samples exceeded this! Dr Joy said “the sad thing was that the results of the random sample came as no surprise”. Fish and Game’s chief executive Martin Taylor said the results showed "the cows are coming home to roost. Some detractors will say this is scaremongering. It is not!” Mike commented "It was citizen science. Anyone could have sent off a sample to a lab and paid $100. But this was an opportunity to make it more real for people to think about what is happening to their water in terms of human health. That's why I wanted to do this, once I'd read that cancer paper. We would be failing in our duty if we hadn't shared all this information with the people who are affected." In February 2018 “Science News” had reported the Danish findings stating “Nitrate in drinking water increases the risk of colorectal cancer, study finds”. Dr Schullehner’s paper was also acclaimed by other publications throughout the year. Science News stated: “Nitrate in groundwater and drinking water, which primarily comes from fertilisers used in the agricultural production, has not only been subject to decades of environmental awareness -- it has also been suspected of increasing the risk of cancer. The largest epidemiological study ever carried out in this area now shows that there is a correlation -- also when the amount of nitrate in the drinking water is far below the current drinking water standard.” Below: Labelled Canterbury samples

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The research results confirm a suspicion that has long been held; that nitrate increases the risk of colon and rectal cancer. The health risk arises when nitrate is converted into carcinogenic substances that are known as N-nitroso compounds in the body. Colorectal cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in Denmark and New Zealand, and the third most frequent worldwide. After F & G released Mike Joy’s results the Stuff website reported “A citizen science experiment of 114 Canterbury drinking water sources, conducted by Fish and Game New Zealand, revealed some samples from rural areas exceeded a new, lower, cancer-alarm level European authorities are considering”. Environment Canterbury (ECan) questioned Fish and Game's figures though, with chief scientist Dr Tim Davie saying there was "quite a lot missing from a proper analysis and some pretty poor understanding". The Stuff website’s comments pages were dominated by those who were

incredulous at Dr Davie’s comment. “It was not that ECan was unworried about the Fish and Game study,” Davie added “This does add something. But it doesn't add anything startlingly new." (I feel a “Tui’s ad” coming on!) The general reaction however was that ECan was “out to lunch” with this issue. ECan’s own previously published figures parallel the levels found by Dr Joy. The findings also back up the many comments by Dr Alastair Humphrey, Canterbury’s Medical Officer of Health, whose warnings over nitrate levels go back years, largely in regard to the acute effects of “blue baby syndrome”. In this nitrates are converted in the gut of babies (and via pregnant women to foetuses) to nitrites which lock onto haemoglobin molecules and reduce the oxygen supply to developing organs, including the brain. The highest nitrate levels were in the area north of the Waimakariri River. Interestingly recent aquifer studies show that this area’s water is flowing, via deep aquifers, under the river and into the city’s water supply sources. The highest New Zealand levels for CRC are in the area from Canterbury to Southland. The highest rates occur in “Pakeha” New Zealanders. This area is now also the heartland of “industrial dairy”. New Zealand has concerted government initiatives to tackle, suicide, the road toll, breast and prostate cancer. Government is now focussing on tackling the causes. With CRC the government and research efforts have gone primarily into remediation/cures/surgical procedures. Published studies on the causes are few and far between. A bacterial link is currently under study but the “triggers” are still evading science. Until now there was no “smoking gun”; or is it “dripping tap”? The Danish study gives us “direction”. New Zealand just has to follow it. Canterbury, Otago and Southland have regional councils whose records would suggest that they have been AWOL when it comes to environmental health issues for the last couple of decades. Nitrate leaching into depleted water catchments has increased exponentially. Many of these areas

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rely on subterranean aquifers for drinking water. Most people living on the region’s farms drink bore water from them, as well as those living in urban areas such as Christchurch. The nitrate leaching from cattle urine and, especially, from over-application of water, urea and phosphate fertilizers is significant nationally. We owe it to everyone exposed to the country’s nitrate polluted waters to tackle it as a national crisis. CRC can take 20 years to appear. It is truly a “time bomb” situation. Perhaps the shareholders (who reside in Remuera, Karori, Fendalton, etc.) of corporate farms which dominate the South Island’s east coast farmlands, are more concerned with “the bottom line” than the colorectal cancer levels in those who actually live on the land. It has an almost Dickensian feel to it. “When they have felled the last tree, eaten the last steak, drained the last river, and poisoned the last aquifer, perhaps then they will realise that you cannot eat money”. Another F & G study, also led by Mike Joy, has now shown that Northern Canterbury’s rivers are infected with two strains of anti-biotic resistant E. coli. Boiling water will remove harmful bacteria, and much of the chlorine, but the nitrates persist. Nick Smith’s “swimmable rivers” targets were a joke. Now they are becoming a very sick joke (a deliberate pun). When will it stop? In a bizarre moment I recalled the old line about “Drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die”. Just as Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock, will our nitrate laden water do exactly that to us?

Rex N. Gibson Journal Reference: Jörg Schullehner, Birgitte Hansen, Malene Thygesen, Carsten B. Pedersen, Torben Sigsgaard. Nitrate in drinking water and colorectal cancer risk: A nationwide population-based cohort study. International Journal of Cancer, 2018; DOI: 10.1002/ijc.31306

Christchurch Fishing and Casting Club

(The Friendly Bunch) Catering for Fly & Spin

To view the website, hover your curser over the Club monogram (right) and press Control while

Click the mouse to follow the link

Below is a press release I received from the NZFFA I have added it to the newsletter for members of the club It’s a little wordy and I normally like to break things up with a few

pics but felt on this occationit may detract from the point.-Ed

Federation of Freshwater Anglers 021 02600437 PO Box 10580, Te Rapa

president@nzffa.co.nz

Hamilton 3210

26th January 2019

Dear Sir

Press Release – for immediate use

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River Crisis Urgently Needs

Action

A trout and river advocacy, the NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers, is calling

for urgent action on the plight of New Zealand’s deteriorating rivers both in

terms of water quality and flow.

The call came in the wake of a reported article last week from Reuters in the

USA’s prestigious “New York Times” and the UK’s “The Times” which said "New Zealand's clean, green image took a beating this summer as tourists travelling

through the countryside posted pictures of lakes and rivers off limits due to

contamination by farm effluent, garbage and human faeces." The article said “a booming dairy farming industry, along with a surge in tourists

seeking unspoiled natural attractions, has taken its toll on the country's

environment, heavily marketed as '100% Pure’.”

NZ Federation of Freshwater Anglers president Graham Carter of Hamilton said a

sharp warning was several years in 2011 when then Prime Minister John Key

was taken to task on the UK’s BBC hardtalk programme about the lack of credibility in New Zealand’s claim to be “100% pure.”

“Since 2011 we’ve had over seven years of inaction in terms of a remedy. Worse still government speeded up deterioration by its policies of rampant growth in

dairying and other development. The previous government’s Prime Minister Key

and his senior minister Steven Joyce pushed for maximum growth in dairying,

even pushing dairying expansion in low rainfall regions like the Mackenzie Basin and Canterbury,” he said. “The new Labour-led government in 18 months has

not done much either. It seems procrastination and inertia is the politicians'

answer."

A current dry summer and soaring temperatures with lower river levels was

putting pressure on flows. Already warnings were out from regional councils about toxic algae in rivers due to nutrients leaching into freshwater aqua-

systems.

Graham Carter said it was "a bad, bad look" in the eyes of overseas countries

hearing of the crisis around New Zealand’s rivers. It would adversely affect long term the economy by undermining marketing claims of “100% pure” that were

integral to selling exports and attracting tourists.

"The underlying cause is that politicians like John Key and Steven Joyce were

afflicted with a myopic ethos of focusing solely on more and more rather than

building quality. John Key as tourism minister advocated more and more tourists

whereas he should have been advocating higher quality, more affluent tourists. Similarly with dairy cows. Added-value has been talked about for decades but

there’s been little overall action to implement it.”

John Key failed to upgrade infrastructure to cope with the flood of tourists, particularly the environmental effects of low yielding freedom campers and their

debris and effluent.

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“The lack of foresight and planning by the then government is starkly evident today with rubbish, human faeces and crowding of the countryside,

particularly around river banks,” said Graham Carter.

Graham Carter recalled that the John Key government arrogantly sacked an

elected council in Environment Canterbury and put in its own puppet council so

as to speed up dairying expansion. In addition Conservation and environment minister Nick Smith in the Key-led government single-handedly set 'acceptable'

environmental limits for nitrogen at a level way higher than when they start to

degrade waterways.

“That government has a lot to answer for and while this government has not

made any meaningful moves to remedy things, it’s lining itself up for an election

year barrage in 2020,” he said. “Amazingly the politicians at their peril ignore the increasingly loud voice of public opinion calling for action.”

In a Colmar Brunton survey conducted last month, 82 percent of respondents

said they were "extremely or very" concerned about the pollution of rivers and lakes, more than any other issue including living costs, child poverty and climate

change.

“While synthetic nitrogen is the key driver of the dairy intensification and

expansion that leads to the contamination, it’s a dangerous double whammy as

those same dairy farms are taking water from the aquifers and rivers, diminishing flow and thus increasing the concentration levels of any

contamination.”

Graham Carter added that dairying was for many districts the major factor but there was also other detriments in the monoculture of pine plantations and

reckless clear felling with subsequent siltation of streams, rivers and estuarine

waters, urban discharges of sewer and stormwater into rivers particularly at times of rainfall and New Zealand’s cavalier use of chemicals and poisons such

as 1080.

“Agriculture, forestry, central and local government need to wake up, listen to

the people’s concern and taker urgent action,” he said. “Otherwise the legacy for

tomorrow’s New Zealanders will be shameful, quite apart from the immediate

adverse effects when overseas countries learn more and more, that clean-and-green and 100%-pure are outright lies.”

"And how can you have a 'well-being' budget, when the public is faced with diseased, dying or dead waterways?"

Yours

Graham Carter

President

Contact: Graham Carter 021 026 00437

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Free quotes - Hanging of Wall Coverings - Visit my Website

A Few members photos thanks to those who sent

some through!

The Arps Family Charlie a lovely Brown trout, Harry with his 7 giller and can’t leave out Dad can we with a lovely specimen all from the South.