PC1 Why Bother Complying

PC1 Why Bother Complying

You may well ask what he is on about.

Under Plan Change 1 the agricultural industries are going to be hit with a raft of new regulations and rules for compliance; the aim being to improve the water quality in the region.

Even though only 15 of the sub-catchments in the Waikato and Waipa catchments were exceeding the standards proposed to be introduced through the enactment of PC1 at the time it was proposed.

The Government made substantial changes to the enforcement provisions in the Resource Management Act (RMA), including increasing the maximum penalties for offending, which came into effect on 21 August 2025.

As a result of these changes, Waikato Regional Council compliance manager Patrick Lynch stated that “Waikato businesses that interact with the environment need to be even more vigilant, as this very significant law change has put a major focus on those who breach environmental regulation.

It is a well-known fact that Koi Carp are a significant polluter of our waterways, arguably the largest contributor to sediment and Phosphorus reactivation in the rivers and lakes!

Decimating our waterways by their feeding habits; they stir up the bottom of ponds, lakes and rivers, muddying the water and destroying native plant and fish habitat, eroding streambanks and adding to the nutrient load.

Control of Koi Carp is the responsibility of WRC (under their pest management Plan) & DOC.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) considers koi carp a pest in New Zealand that poses a significant ecological risk by damaging habitats, competing with native species, and reducing water quality.

A previous Chair of the WRC was questioned about Koi Carp and asked why they are not doing anything about control; the response was “The problem is just too big. We don’t know how to control Koi.” 

The maximum fine for a breach of the Resource Management Act has now leapt a whopping 1600 per cent and it is important for the Waikato community to understand is that the consequences for serious breaches of environmental regulation are far more severe now said Mr Lynch.

Yet even with the prior knowledge about the effects from Koi Carp and the huge increases in penalties for breaching the Resource Management Act, the WRC seems to be happy to ignore the failure of their own organisation and DOC to make any attempt to comply with their responsibilities in regard to pest fishes/Koi Carp.

It seems that they would much rather punish the agricultural industries and jeopardise our food security and our economic stability because they don’t know where to start or what to do.

Koi carp are widespread in Auckland and Waikato. (The population has exploded, and they now make up 80% of the total biomass³ in the lower Waikato river catchment. It has been estimated that there are approximately 750,000 tonnes of Koi Carp in the lower Waikato Catchment).

Many people are unaware of the damage done to our waterways by pest fish. Unfortunately Koi Carp have spread into the wild, become pests and are threatening New Zealand’s freshwater species and environments.

Even if we were to ban farming totally we would still have a problem with water quality from the effects of the invasive pest fish species, but they have been largely ignored with the focus for water quality improvement being almost totally on the effects from agriculture.

Koi Carp is rapidly becoming one of the worst invasive pests in New Zealand (the equivalent of the Possum/Rabbit in the waterways).

To have any chance of success in addressing the desired improvements in water quality then we “MUST” put in place strategies to deal with the invasive pest fish species such as Koi Carp, as failure to do so will result in absolute failure of the ability to achieve a reasonable level of Fresh Water Quality.

We have spent millions of dollars in researching Koi Carp in the New Zealand environment and identifying the damages they cause to our native flora and fauna yet we have done almost nothing to either control or eradicate them from our waterways!

Koi Carp are a huge problem but if we implement a concerted planned program against them we can win. We just need to actually start to do something.

DOC officials have acknowledged that we have a problem but they say that they don’t have any money in the budget for control of Koi Carp. Lack of funds is not a viable excuse for failure to act by a government department, when at the same time the Regional Council is going to potentially bankrupt agricultural industry members by implementing PC1.

Given that we know about the problem and we know that DOC have responsibility for the problem of pest fishes, why doesn’t WRC start by serving an abatement notice on DOC?  

Wishful thinking of course, as WRC staff appear instead to focus on farming issues aiming at low hanging fruit that compared with the Koi epidemic are minor indeed.

We now have a new Council which seems to better understand the problem and the agricultural industries are expecting Council to step up to the plate and deal with the Koi Carp issue in the same manner as they deal with agriculture.