The purpose of this review is to provide Wellington Regional Council
(WRC) with information from which they can identify knowledge gaps and
plan where future fish investigations should focus.

The review objectives were to:
1. Bring together existing information on the freshwater fish of the
Wellington Region
2. Describe and characterise freshwater fish for catchments (including
their vulnerability)
3. Make recommendations on priority areas for further freshwater fish
surveys

Recommendations have been made for further study or improvement to
the baseline created here, but order of priority was difficult to assess in the
absence of knowing what changes are imminent. Much of the past data on
fish distribution was collected for specific scientific studies over the past
eighty years. Little of the data collected appears to have been in response
to potential catchment use change or consent applications. Generally,
river systems identified with high values for fish should all be considered
vulnerable if measures are not in place to ensure that land use within their
catchments will not change.