Glendowie Stream Fish Life Under the Microscope Thanks to Partnership

Throughout 2025-26, Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust has partnered with the Local Board, Auckland Council Healthy Waters, the Friends of Churchill Park, the Tāmaki Estuary Protection Society, and local residents to investigate īnanga (whitebait) spawning habitat along the Glendowie Stream. 

The project aims to determine the stream's capacity to support native fish while empowering the local community to become active kaitiaki, or guardians, of their local waterway. 

“People are often surprised to learn their local stream contains a variety of native fish life”, says Mountains to Sea Programme Coordinator Anastasia Zaleta. “They’re often motivated to protect their awa in the long term once they know there’s wildlife in there that needs their help.”

Although the Glendowie Stream flows through an urban catchment and features a 500-metre culvert that restricts natural fish passage, Zaleta says it remains a vital ecological link to the Tāmaki Estuary. To assess its suitability for īnanga spawning, Mountains to Sea staff guided community volunteers through a comprehensive six-stage investigation. Teams began by using salinity meters to map the precise saline wedge where fresh and salt waters meet to find out where īnanga would lay their eggs. Unfortunately, this area was fully encapsulated by a culvert, eliminating any natural spawning habitat.

Subsequent egg surveys conducted between April and July 2026 were unsuccessful in detecting īnanga eggs. The group are currently surveying the areas immediately upstream and downstream of the culvert in case any eggs may be found there, but none have been found, yet. 

Zaleta says protection measures go hand-in-hand with community education to ensure long-term success. After undertaking the Trust’s Whitebait Connection programme, Stonefields School students created informative educational signage that was displayed for a three-month period at St Heliers Library, Roberta Reserve, and Churchill Park. 

Public highlights included a night-time stream spotlighting event in Churchill Park alongside the Friends of Churchill Park, where families watched native eels swim beneath torchlight, and a guided estuary kayak followed by a beach clean-up organised alongside the Tāmaki Estuary Protection Society and Auckland Sea Kayaks.

For decades, urban streams across Tāmaki Makaurau were treated primarily as stormwater channels, but this community-led project demonstrates a growing shift toward viewing them as living ecosystems worth saving. 

“The session was excellent, informative, educational and fun!”, says Churchill Park spotlighting event participant Esti. “It was great to see the enthusiasm of our local community — particularly the kids — gathered together to learn more about native wildlife in streams.”

The project’s aims next year are continued community engagement, further investigation of where the īnanga population might be spawning, and improving the saline wedge habitat with some targeted native planting and pest trapping to remediate the fish passage barriers.

Zaleta encourages anyone who wants to support ongoing restoration efforts across Auckland to join their local conservation group, register their interest for Mountains to Sea school programmes, or contribute through the Trust’s website.