Kayaked in New Zealand? Then you can help me! Its about didymo!

G'day To All my Fellow kayakers,

Im a environmental scientist that needs your help; be you international or one of the locals of New Zealand.

Im doing my masters thesis on didymo up here in Auckland New Zealand. Ive been surf/whitewater kayaking for 8 years. I absolutely get a kick out of kayaking and i dont think there is anything better for the soul and persona.


Im very interested in didymo, my main focus in my thesis is looking into the microclimate of didymo...more the chemistry side of things. By doing this we are able to later determin how it is affecting our rivers, my rersearch will start in 2009. I have read much of the technical reports on the subject.

Currently i am conducting some of my own research. I am looking at the distribution of didymo, and have obtained all confirmed didymo sites within New Zealand. Im wanting to look at the nature of its spread by looking into a very large number of factors; some of these are kayaking hotspots, Tourism Movements, trout/slamon fishing hotspots as well as include many other environmental factors.

What i need from the kayaking community is for you to include all the kayaking spots your have kayaked in New Zealand. I am primarily wanting spots within the south island, but if you have also paddled the North island that would be great. If someone has already marked the spot, please mark it again as i will get an understanding of how popular the area is.

If you can obtain GPS coordinates that would be awsome, if not at least the put-in site located on the google earth map. If your unsure of that even the river name will be ok.


If you dont know how to add this information to the database and map go to the playak menu: PUBLISH! spot/river/waterfall.

Thanks again guys,

If you need to email me
[mail address protected from spambots with javascript]

Regards

Barrack Carle

[for those who have no idea what he's talking about, like me ]

Didymosphenia geminata, commonly known as didymo or rock snot, is a species of diatom that grows in warm and shallow water. If it overgrows, it can form large mats on the bottom of lakes, rivers and streams. It is not considered a significant human health risk, but it can affect stream habitats and sources of food for fish and make recreational activities unpleasant. It is considered a nuisance organism. The microscopic algae can be spread in a single drop of water.

Although I applaud the intention of your research I am not exactly sure what you are trying to establish. Are you trying to find a causal link between kayak river usage and didymo? I think you will struggle to find any correlation here - some rivers have lots of didymo but no kayakers (Lower Waitaki), or lots of didymo and lots of kayakers (Hurunui), or lots of kayakers and no didymo (Kawarau - last time I was there anyway).
I dont think you will get a sufficiently large sample size on Playak alone - you should also try the www.rivers.org.nz site or try and link into the recent/ongoing Otago University river usage study.
Good luck anyway, anything to get rid of this mess.

Cheers Jeroen for the clarification. Sorry if you didn’t know what I was asking. Im living and breathing didymo algal mats, reading numerous technical reports a day on the matter. Tend to forget that people have very limited knowledge on it. check out rivers.org.nz/article/Didymo if you want to know whats going on here in NZ.

Jurgen, there is already a very strong line of thought that kayakers are vectors for the spread of didymo. Not only ourselves but the fishermen, swimmers, jet boaters. Other such natural vectors are believed to be deer as well as waterbirds. Why do you think the CLEAN CHECK DRY campaign has been such a major issue.
By getting people to put in these kayaking sites I am able to transfer them into GPS coordinates and create a layer I can use for my analysis.

“some rivers have lots of didymo but no kayakers (Lower Waitaki), or lots of didymo and lots of kayakers (Hurunui), or lots of kayakers and no didymo (Kawarau - last time I was there anyway)”

Do you think that some of the answers as to why these sites do or don’t have didymo could be answered in a spatial context? In my view I think they can!

Hate to burst the bubble but your Kawarau river has already fallen to didymo…Kawarau River of the Otago Region was identified to have didymo at the start of 2007. Actual date of first confirmation 29/01/2007… Plenty of kayakers….plenty of didymo…

Jurgen you might want to check out www.didymosamplesdb.org.nz to find out what other rivers your kayaking in already hold the invasive diatom.

I Saw that otago survey recreational river survey site yesturday… was quite exciting in the fact that it is the kind of data that is lacking, and can be used by a huge range of people. Chances however of getting onboard now is probably not a reality as submissions have closed, and data is often not shared between universities especailly if it is someone using the data for their masters or PhD Thesis.

Also will get onto the New Zealand Recreational Canoe Association about the research, have emailed them a few days ago but have not received a response as of yet. There is a very large kayaking/rafting population that utilize the website.

Reasons for submitting this to playak is because international boaters use it…and as we all know, New Zealand is considered kayaking mecca. Be interesting to see where overseas people kayak.

Anyway better get on the run, got reports to read.

Cheerz Guys.

Barrack