Didymo News

The Department of Conservation Taupo Fishery Area has an education programme called “Taupo for Tomorrow education”. Educator Thea Depetris has designed a didymo teacher information resource

All DOC Visitor Centres will shortly have a generic Didymo Display as part of the Didymo Public Awareness Campaign. This will help target anglers, as well as independent travellers and recreationists.

The summer programme was very much a fire fighting exercise. It needed to be. We had little time to prepare and there was real urgency and a great deal at stake. Now that the summer is almost past we need to turn the attention to make sure that we work together in a consistent and structured fashion. BNZ are developing a long term strategy. Under this umbrella the regional action groups are developing simple response and management plans. Each conservancy is also developing its own management plan specifically aimed at protecting conservation values.

The Didymo Programme relies on regional partnerships. A series of regional meetings were facilitated throughout the North Island in November. These meetings led to the Summer Action Programme. BNZ have agreed to support this network and will participate in regional meetings throughout New Zealand to agree on response and long term management strategies.

The spread of Didymo through the South Island increases the chance of a North Island incursion and puts yet more pressure on our operations. The current priorities are:

• Implementing more effective boarder control. We are currently working with BNZ to extend the coverage at the Cook Strait Ferry. It is also clear that a fresh approach is required to get the message to travellers using our domestic airports
• Developing a monitoring programme to maintain regular surveillance at critical North Island sites