William "Bill" Kerrison has dedicated the best part of his life to helping tuna thrive while educating those who feed on them too. Photo / Leah Tebbutt
William "Bill" Kerrison has dedicated the best part of his life to helping tuna thrive while educating those who feed on them too. Photo / Leah Tebbutt
When William "Bill" Kerrison's whānau sat down for Christmas lunch there was one sure thing.
There was no eel on the table to tuck into.
"They should know me by now, I'm not serving something as beautiful as that."
Today, Kerrison is being honoured by becoming a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to river and wildlife conservation - something he said he had to consider for a brief moment.
"I thought 'gosh, now I'm going to have to get a new suit'." he joked in his Galatea home.
Two different tuna (Māori translation for eels) take pride and place on his office wall.
Bill Kerrison releases thousands of baby eels above the Matahina dam because they are unable to climb the dam to head up the Rangataiki river in 2000. Photo / File
For more 35 years, Kerrison has collected tuna blocked by dams in the Rangitaiki River and moved them so their natural migration cycle could continue.
He has also been active in education and advisory roles, raising the profile of the longfin eel, a special endemic taonga of Aotearoa New Zealand.
Kerrison's teachings stem from those of his grandmother, although his love for the "beautiful creatures" came after his first encounter at 11 years old.
"I was in Thames and when we came in I could see thousands of these eel heads popping out from the banks, but there were people above - fishing for them.
"I thought, 'I'm not going to let them take my eels' and as the baskets came up I would tip them out. I could hear the fellas above going 'I swear I had an eel in there'," Kerrison chuckles.
A photo board showcasing Bill's time working on the dam and with the tuna. Photo / Leah Tebbutt
Known as the "Tuna Man", the 81-year-old has been collecting elvers, or baby eels, from the base of the Matahina dam in spring as they migrate up the Rangitaiki River and transferring them beyond two dams so they can continue their migration upriver and into side streams.
In autumn he collects adult eels, some up to 80 years old and two metres in length, from the other side of the dams on the river so they can migrate to the sea and to tropical South Pacific waters to spawn.
It is estimated he has helped to relocate more than 30 million tuna.
Bill Kerrison moves Thousands of baby eels from below the Matahina dam in 2000 because they are unable to climb the dam to head up the Rangataiki river. Photo / File
"I love it, it is as simple as that. And our people still rely on them.
"It has been a good journey. Mum (Kerrison's wife) wants me to stop at the end of this year but I said 'Hell no, we still have to get Matahina running 100 per cent'."
Today Kerrison, along with his whānau, will accept what he believes to be his greatest honour to date, but really the honour for him after all these years is spending time, in the water, with the tuna.
