Saving taonga
In this activity, students learn about eels and/or whitebait and how human activity has impacted on their lives. Students learn about obstacles these taonga face and about possible solutions (mitigation) for the problems.

Whitebait
Whitebait (also known as matamata to Waikato-Tainui) is a collective term used to describe the juvenile form of five galaxiid fish species.
By the end of this activity, students should be able to:
describe the life cycle and some behaviour patterns of eels and/or whitebait
describe how human activity has impacted the life of eels/whitebait
present some practical solutions that might help to re-establish populations of eels/whitebait.
Download the Word file (see link below) for:
introduction/background notes
what you need
what to do
student handout.
Related content
The level 3 Connected article Testing the waters describes how scientists use the nature of science to investigate freshwater pollution.
Discover more about tuna and tuaki – explore food and resource-gathering traditions practised by Ngāi Tahu whānau in Te Waipounamu, these are part of the Mahinga kai – natural resources that sustain life interactive.