Freshwater environments

The health of trout is dependant on the habitat that they live in. Clean, clear and cool freshwater is an important part of the Taupo trout habitat.

WHY CLEAN? Because contaminates like oil, paints and detergents can suffocate or poison fish.

WHY CLEAR? Because trout are visible feeders. This means that they need to be able to see through the water column in order to effectively catch their prey.

WHY COOL? Because trout will stop eating and breeding in water that is too warm.

Freshwater - not only important to trout!!

Freshwater environments are also important to humans. Water is a very precious resource to humans as only about 1% of the water on the earth's surface is accessible and adequate for things like drinking, irrigating and cleaning. Water is also a very good solvent meaning that it will wash away whatever is on the surface of the ground. Therefore, waterways like streams, rivers and lakes tend to be the places where things like litter and chemicals that line our streets get washed into.

When humans waste freshwater and allow pollution to be washed into our waterways, we are negatively impacting this scarce resource that we are so dependant on. If we always want places to swim, water to drink and fish to catch then we must learn to take better care of our freshwater environments.