New colony established for threatened bird

Up to 40 threatened mohua, or yellowhead, have been transferred to pest-free Pomona Island in Lake Manapouri in an exercise involving local volunteers, the Department of Conservation and Meridian Energy.

The mohua are being relocated from Breaksea Island off the Fiordland coast to Pomona, the largest island in a lake in New Zealand.

Pomona was cleared of five animal pest species – stoats, rats, mice, possums and deer – after an initiative which began in 2006 involving 200 volunteers putting in some 5500 hours of work.

The exercise is being conducted in conjunction with the Department of Conservation, and has been funded by Meridian Energy via a grant to the trust from its Manapouri-Te Anau community fund.

The birds were caught on Breaksea Island using mist nets and flown to Pomona by helicopter on Tuesday 15 February and Wednesday 16 February.

Pomona Island Charitable Trust spokesperson Viv Shaw says the aim of the exercise is to establish another viable colony of the threatened bird on a pest-free island.

“The island is an accessible location where locals and visitors will be able to see, hear and learn about native New Zealand flora and fauna, and the establishment of a colony of mohua will be a major step in that direction.”

The exercise is the second relocation of native birds to the island following the liberation of a number of South Island robin on Pomona in 2008.

About Meridian Energy

Meridian is New Zealand’s largest electricity generator and currently owns and operates nine hydro stations and three wind farms within New Zealand, and one wind farm in Australia:

· Manapouri power station and eight hydro stations on the Waitaki River in the South Island

· Te Apiti wind farm near Palmerston North

· White Hill wind farm in Southland

· West Wind farm in Wellington

· Mt Millar wind farm, Eyre Peninsula, South Australia

· CalRENEW 1 solar farm in Mendota, California

Internationally, Meridian has operations in Sydney, Australia, and San Francisco, California. Meridian recently announced the establishment of a joint venture with Australian energy company AGL to build what will be the southern hemisphere's biggest wind farm in southwest Victoria The 420MW Macarthur wind farm is due for completion in 2013.

Meridian has a total retail customer base of 203,271 customers throughout New Zealand, which includes households, farms and businesses. It also provides electricity to New Zealand’s single largest electricity user, the Rio Tinto Alcan New Zealand Limited aluminium smelter in Bluff.

Meridian invests strongly in renewable energy development both in New Zealand and offshore and has almost completed construction on the Te Uku wind farm, near Hamilton, New Zealand.