‘Threatened whitebait’ infographic goes viral

‘Threatened whitebait’ infographic goes viral

An infographic showing that four of the five species eaten as whitebait are threatened has gone viral on social media, raising awareness about the plight of New Zealand’s most popular freshwater fish.

The infographic, created by Stella McQueen – a self-confessed ‘fish geek’ and freshwater advocate – was originally shared on her Facebook page “New Zealand Native Fish”. Within a few hours it had been seen by over 20,000 people.

“Three days later, and the image has been been shared 6000 times and seen by more than 740,000 people. That’s the equivalent of nearly 17% of New Zealand’s population, which shows that people really care about whitebait,” said McQueen, a freshwater ecologist and author of A Photographic Guide to Freshwater Fishes of New Zealand.

“Most New Zealanders have no idea that whitebait grow up to be five different species, let alone that most of them are threatened. We can now each make a choice to help the fish – whether by not whitebaiting this year, stopping whitebaiting altogether, not buying it, or by simply making people more aware.”

McQueen hopes the image will raise awareness for the plight of New Zealand’s freshwater fish species, which are declining rapidly.

“Population modelling suggests that if nothing is done soon, many of our native freshwater fish (including these whitebait species) could go extinct within 50 years.”

“Whitebaiting is only one part of the problem. Habitat loss and degradation is the biggest issue. If all whitebaiting ended this year, they would still decline to extinction.”

“Fixing the habitat will take decades and by then, whitebait could be extinct. Stopping at least commercial whitebaiting would be an immediate, effective way to buy us valuable time.”

“If we don't make changes now, we may have no choice but to stop in the future because these fish will be extinct.”

New Zealand’s 51 species of freshwater fish are threatened by many things, including land intensification from farming, introduced species like trout, and commercial whitebait fisheries.

“Everything we do on the land affects our waterways. For example, cutting down forests leads to bigger, more frequent floods and more erosion, which means soil ends up in the waterways and smothers habitat and food for the fish.”

“There has also been a huge increase in nutrients in our waterways – from things like fertiliser, animal effluent, and urban sewage.”

“Then there’s introduced fish that prey on our natives, higher temperatures, dams and old culverts getting in the way of fish migrations, and (of course) fishing for whitebait and eels.”

“If people understand how threatened these species are, they might think twice before they fry up a whitebait fritter.”

ENDS

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