Fish Futures Dr Ian Kusabs, together with Hanatia Marsha, Richard Storey & Brian Smith explored how to use whakaweku (bundles of bracken fern traditionally used by Māori) to harvest kōura (freshwater crayfish) in Aotearoa, New Zealand. They tested their effectiveness for monitoring stream macroinvertebrates by placing whakaweku in hard- and soft-bottomed sections of a rural Waikato stream, alongside standard kick-net sampling.
Results showed whakaweku provided similar macroinvertebrate metrics (MCI, SQMCI, total richness, and EPT* richness) to kick-net samples, though community composition differed slightly. Colonisation periods of two and four weeks made little difference. A larger study could confirm if whakaweku can track environmental changes across sites.
The authors recommend whakaweku for Māori cultural and community stream monitoring as an affordable, easy-to-use method that captures kōura, toitoi, and macroinvertebrates in various stream types.