More than 200 people attended the Wanaka branch of the Royal Society-sponsored meeting titled "Saving our Alpine Lakes — What Can We Do?" at the Wanaka Lakes Centre to hear from two scientists and a panel of stakeholders.
Wanaka Royal Society president Max Shepherd said they were very pleased and appreciative that a representative from every statutory organisation attended as the public wanted to know what the problems were and any solutions.
He said everyone agreed more data about the present state of the lakes was needed as "there’s a bit of a black hole about what we don’t know".
University of Otago freshwater scientist Marc Schallenberg, one of the two scientific presenters at the meeting, said "so much research needs to be done".
"Lake snow has been here since 2003/4 and we still don’t know anything about it.’’He blamed a lack of willingness on the part of the Government to pay for research.
"I’ve been talking about lake snow since 2008 and I’ve been applying for research grants to study lake snow for the past four years and I come up empty every time."
The other scientific presenter, University of Waikato professor of lakes management and restoration David Hamilton, said the New Zealand Government "absolutely had to invest" in research and preserving lakes like Wanaka before it was too late.
"There is a false assumption that large lakes are immune to the stresses of human activity such as changes in land use, the introduction of invasive species and climate change but those stresses are acting on Wanaka now."
He said many of our lowland lakes were already "at the bottom of the cliff and we’ve got to pull them back up the cliff, which is really hard work and very expensive, but some of our South Island deep lakes are not at the cliff yet".
The meeting was chaired by Queenstown Lakes District Council deputy mayor Calum McLeod and panel representatives included Guardians of Lake Wanaka chairman Don Robertson, Dr Schallenberg, Otago Regional Council manager resource science Dean Olsen, Department of Conservation regional conservator Mike Tubbs, Jeff Donaldson of the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Freshwater Biosecurity Partnership, Ministry for the Environment freshwater implementation manager Roger Bannister, Fish and Game Otago chief executive Niall Watson, Land Information NZ senior portfolio manager (biosecurity) Dave Mole, Queenstown Lakes District Council chief engineer Ulrich Glasner and Prof Hamilton.
Dr Shepherd said "if the meeting was a catalyst to unify all parties concerned about the water quality of the lakes and their catchments, then the outcome would prove to be very successful".
He said money for research was urgently needed and the Government and "hopefully the public would come to the party with funding".
